But I Thought
by VampX13
Summary: This is for all those lovers of Draco. Basically you are going to visit a friend in London when you find yourself soon within the clutches of Draco. Love and murder await you in this story and perhaps some magic as well.
1. Chapter 1

His eyes burned into yours. You were fet up and sweaty, deciding you should've just given him an excuse... some way to get you out of school! 

"Ten more push-ups, girls!" he declared. You realized two push-ups later how much you hated gym when suddenly you heard a loud screaming noise.

You woke up covered in a layer of sweat, and rolled over to hit your snooze button. Today was the first day of summer. You had forgotten to turn off your alarm. Or had you, you began to wonder as you rolled over with your eyes closed not wanting to open them and wake up but sleep-in and hopefully fall asleep to better dreams.

"Amanda!" you heard someone call from outside of your bedroom as a knock emanated from the door.

You groaned and opened your eyes to see the pasty blue wall of your room.

"Are you ready?" your mother called.

Suddenly you remember why you had shut off your alarm. You were going to visit your friend John! In London, England! You swung yourself out of bed and hoped up and over to your dresser, quickly replying to your mum, "almost! Don't come in!"

You began to get dressed swinging clothes off and on, dabbing on some make-up. You looked at the finished product in the mirror.

You were Amanda Lee McKnight. You weren't the prettiest, smartest, nicest or "most talented" girl in the world, continent, country, province or even city, but you weren't a horrible ugly thing either. Your hair was brown and long-ish and still had blonde streaks in it from a year and a half ago when you had decided to go slightly blonde for a school dance. Your eyes were brown but seemed to change colour when it rained. Your face was round and your body wasn't entirely fit, but not really porky: more voluptuous, with big hips, a huge arse and a slim waist. You lived in a small city in Ontario, Canada. Canada was boring to you and you'd much rather be somewhere exotic for your summer, exciting and new. And now your wish was coming true! You had received a message from John, a pal of yours from England when writing in your e-journal one time, explaining how you should come to England to visit. At first your parents were very protective but eventually gave way to a maybe and then finally a yes. You had actually got out of school yesterday and had packed two weeks in advance. But where was your suitcase now? Uhmm... oh yeah, right the bed. You calmed down a bit. Your friends couldn't wait to seen you next year and you were pretty popular, at least with the drama kids, you attended a school of the arts and got in only because you could act or somewhat act...

You're alarm clock went off again, screeching. You turned off the alarm this time hating the trick your snooze button always played on you.

Your mum yelled through the door, "you're going to miss the plane!" Parent are so impatient you thought to yourself, why couldn't she just ask if you were ready instead of assuming you had slept in late and were now rushing... which you were. But that was beside the poi- "Amanda, I'm leaving without you!" your mother shouted as you hopped around putting on your sock and bending to grab your suitcase. You rushed by your dresser opened your bedroom door.

Had your cat Mittens purr up against you and just as your ran down the stairs you realised you forgot your "bag". Purse was such a sexist word, you thought.

You said, "hold on a minute," to your mum, ran back upstairs, grabbed your purse, ran back downstairs, walked into your shoes as your mum walked out the door with your luggage. You snatched the purse close to you, rolled down your socks and strolled out the door after her.

You and your mother dashed through the airport, checking your bag and running through the metal detector. With a couple minutes to spare your mum said good-bye to you and covered you in hugs and tears. You hugged her back, telling her it was only for two months. You knew you'd miss her and dad and your sisters and your cat and your friends but England would be so great! A man announced your plane you be boarding and you went to board it saying your finally farewells to your mum.

You took your seat and began to talk to the man beside you until your ears popped and you just felt a little irritated and decided to go to sleep for the remainder of flight after touching up your make-up a bit. Your eyes began to close and the last muffled words you heard were an airhostess asking you if you'd like a pillow.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 

You awoke to someone shaking you rather violently from an erotic dream about a sexy vampire and a vat of liquid milk chocolate. He said to you, "hey, we've landed are you getting off." He was dressed in one of the planes work uniforms. You quickly jumped up hitting your head sharply on something above you. "Damn it," you cursed under your breath, before nodding your head. He stepped back and you walked down the aisle and exited the airplane.

You rubbed your head while waiting for John to show up. You looked at your picture of him. He had short brown hair and green eyes. And just as you put the picture away you saw him and he saw you and you both ran into each other, holding each other in a hug before pulling away. You were really half shocked. Some part of you hadn't really expected him to show up. He looked at you and asked, "How was the flight?" You replied with an, "uhm – it was fine. I –uh- slept for most of it." He smiled at you and his eyes seemed to sparkle. You couldn't get over the fact that you were in England with a gorgeous British boy! "I s'pose we should get your bags then," he said. You nodded and as soon as you had your bags you were ready to go. But before you left the airport you decided to powder your nose and headed to the ladies room. You gazed in the mirror at yourself and your jaw practically dropped. You looked awful. Your hair was a mess and some of your make-up was smudged around your eyes. You took ten minutes to fix yourself and tried to keep your hair from sticking up so much by wetting it down. Finally you left to go greet John's parents. But when you got out of the bathroom John wasn't waiting where he said he would be. You thought he must've gone to get a snack as you picked up the bags that had been left by the bathroom door unattended.

You walked over to the food court but didn't spot him there. You couldn't see him anywhere. You began to panic. Your heart was racing and you felt like bursting out in tears as questions raced through your mind as much as faces did past your eyes, what if you couldn't find him, what if he wasn't here, what if he'd gotten killed? You decided to wait by the bathroom in hopes he'd come back but you waited there for almost five hours and didn't see any sign of him returning. The sun was beginning to go down and it begun to rain very hard. You felt a tear go down your cheek as you began to grab your bags and set off to find some sort of airport security or a police officer. When all of the sudden something caught your eye. You turned and saw a little piece of gold on the floor it was flat and square no one seemed to even look at it and you thought you might be imagining it, surely someone must've lost it. You opened up the card and it read:  
Go outside.  
-John  
You decided you might as well go along with your imagination and step outside for a moment, which you did. You didn't see anything at first but then you saw John and he was at the end of the street motioning you to come over. You picked up your bags and walked over to him, almost in a run, tears fading from your face. He must've got lost or something, you thought to yourself, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation.  
You were soaked when you reached John and you were about to ask him where he'd been, when he grabbed you and kissed you. You felt dizzy and confused, and gripping your bag handles even harder. His lips and his arms let go of you and you opened your eyes to see you were no longer outside in the rain but in his house.

You screamed. You couldn't believe where you were. You were in a house and a second ago you'd been outside. You thought you might be going insane. Maybe you were rotting away in an insane asylum right now and none of your life had been real it had all been an illusion. You heard your scream though and assumed you weren't crazy. You heard the scream bounce around the room and you saw a boy now in front of you putting his hands to his ears. It wasn't John it was a boy with blonde hair, green eyes and a rather pale face. "Shut up!" he screamed at you, "shut up will you!" You closed your mouth and began to cry. To cry and cry and cry. You closed your eyes and felt the tears sting your cheeks and your mouth. You heard someone say, "do you think she'll ever stop making that noise?" and then you felt something hard hit you in the back of the head and you felt yourself slip in unconsciousness.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

You woke up from a dream on the airplane and shook yourself a bit. You knew you should probably open your eyes and get off the plane but you felt so tired. You began to open the lids of your eyes and shake your head a bit but as you looked around you realized you weren't in the airplane. You realized all that had happened and where you must be. You suddenly wished you were asleep as you were cold, hungry and bruised. You dragged yourself up from the floor and began to feel another flood of tears coming but swallowed them down. You couldn't cry right now. You had to think of a way to contact someone. There must be a phone around here somewhere. You stood up and began to study the room around you. You had fallen asleep on the soft white-carpeted floor and the room was a peach colour that only made you hungry. There were two chairs both were white and looked very comfortable. You slipped down in one and heard someone walking in the next room just as you began to doze off again. You sat up straight and the door opened. "Uhg. You're still here, eh?" said the blonde boy, the one you'd seen before you lost consciousness. You managed to mouth off to him, "yeah well what'd you expect? Did you think I'd just get up and run away after you knocked me out." He sneered at you, "I'd watch your mouth if I were you." You ignored him and yelled at him, "where's John?" He laughed a bit. However you didn't see the humour it and went to go into the next room to look for him when he said after you, "You're not going out there." "Who's going to stop me," you replied, you pushed him aside and headed for the door, hearing him murmur something. You didn't care you were getting John and getting out – You felt a surge of pain go up your arm and spread. You couldn't move and couldn't breathe. The blonde haired boy came from behind you and whispered in your ear, "I am."

You shivered all over. When suddenly a man who looked much like the boy only older burst in and yelled, "Draco, stop!" He let you go and you felt yourself collapse to the floor. "We can't do any of this to… this muggle right now. The Franklins are people with much wealth and power and this… muggle means something to their youngest son. She'll have to be taken care of until the Franklins' son says otherwise." You breathed in deeply, panting and somewhat coughing. The boy whom you assumed to be Draco bent down and muttered, "you got lucky this time but we'll have some time to ourselves later." The older man whom you believed to be Draco's father then left with his son, turning his back on you but saying, "John will be with you in a moment. I suggest you make yourself presentable." Presentable? How did he expect you to be presentable when you had nearly been killed by his son? You felt as though you were trapped as you got up off the floor and went back to the chair. You sighed and realized this would probably be where you'd be spending your summer, a place where you'd probably almost get killed more than once. Hastily John entered the room, he looked like he was going to say something but then stopped. He took the other chair and pulled it closer to yours and sat down. You had someone questions buzzing in your mind that you couldn't pick just one and you sat their quietly waiting for him to say something, anything to break the awkward silence. Then he spoke, "I'm sorry about this. It – It wasn't supposed to be like this you know." You nodded though you didn't really understand anything he was saying you saw his lips move and heard words but it was like he was speaking in a totally different language. Then you parted your lips and asked him, "Where are we?" "Specifically?" he replied, " I can't answer that. But this is a basically just a house. Not my house, not that… git's house either." You began to chuckle when he said the word git and found yourself set at ease a bit more. "Who is that git?" you began to ask as he began to ask if you were all right. You told him you were fine and again asked him who the git was. He thought for a moment and then looked at the door and leaned in a bit closer, "well – he's Draco Malfoy. He's from a pureblood family, a family full of wizards and witches too 100. He hates people like you because you have no magic. You see I brought you here in hopes that you could help me with my muggle studies. Well, so much for that dream. Although Draco may threaten you he isn't strong enough to actually kill you. His dad--" Both of you heard the door open and John leaned in even closer a bit, practically resting his head on your shoulder.

Draco stood in front at the door. "Oh, Johnny boy," Draco began as he glared at you smiling, "you dad wants to see you a moment." "He can come in here," said John a bit protectively. "Just go," you whispered to him, "I'll be fine." You gave him a quick smile before he got up and crossed the room to the door. Just as he left, you weren't so sure what fine was going to be. It was quiet for a couple minutes and frankly you didn't mind the silence. Draco took a few paces forward and his smile faded to dull look of boredom. He took the seat beside you and you almost cringed. "I'm sorry," he said very monotony. "You're not," you said, sighing, "but whatever." You tried to act like he had just pinched you a minute ago, instead of him taking all the air out of you and in result you collapsing to the floor. He took out a long gleaming piece of wood, which looked much like a polished stick. You felt your face subside to confusion.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

You heard Draco say, "Sorry, it's a wand. Sometimes I forget how stupid you muggles really are." He said this never taking his eyes off the wand. You mimicked him sticking out your tongue and mouthing his words. Suddenly you felt a little swelling in the chest area. You looked down to see your bust had doubled in size and you had now what looked like double D's. Your eyes widened and your jaw dropped. Draco looked at you and stifled a laugh. "Did you just…?" you stammered. "They look real good on you," he said while smirking. "Humph!" you remarked and snagged the wand away from him. "Now it's your turn," you said pointing it at him. He only laughed more; "you're going to use my wand on me? A muggle is going to use a wand on me. Oh, I'm so scared. What're you going to do? Hit me with it?" You waved the wand around saying some random made-up words and then the vase shattered in the corner. You smiled as Draco began to look a bit panicked. You wave the wand around said a few more made-up words and before long Draco was wearing nothing but his boxers and you were trying to remember the word you had used to make his clothes disappear when the door opened again and John walked in. You turned around to look at him and Draco got up and grabbed his wand back whispering something and maintaining his clothes again. John eyes gleamed on Draco, who sneered and left the room.

As soon as he had left John looked back at you and gasped, "Oh my… what in bloody hell did he do to you?" "What?" you began to stammer before looking down and realizing what he was talking about, "Oh, right. That. He did some freaky thing with that piece of wood and –uh-- sorry about the vase. I don't know many spells other than abracadabra which I actually didn't try." You shrugged and gave a smile. John looked at you and then at the broken vase and then at your chest, where he stared for at least five minutes before you crossed your arms. "You don't have to stare," you said. He cleared his throat, "Sorry." He dragged his eyes away from your chest and looked at your face. "I think I can fix that," he said, approaching you. "Wait a minute," you said backing up and bumping into the chair, "you think?" "Okay," he said, "I guess you'd rather Draco do it then?" You sighed, "How about you find out the spell to get rid of it or whatever and I'll just feel like I have a "chest" full of treasure."

You spent the rest of your day finding out about the magical word and trying some spells you must've had some magic blood in your family but then again, you thought, who didn't? Everyone must have a bit of magical blood in his or her family line. So there were really no two groups of people. There were no non-magicals and magicals just people with different magical abilities. John and you came a bit better more aquatinted though you never asked about him disappearing or his parents as you didn't want to ruin the day. You had dinner just with him and then he showed you to your room and told you he was going to look for the spell to undo what Draco had done. So here you were standing in front of a bathroom mirror and brushing your teeth, getting ready for bed, and you found yourself mimicking a British accent. You found yourself saying things like, "ace," "bloke," "frit," "gozz," "quid," "scoobs," "ta," and "zebra crossing." Then you laughed as you began to monologue about John and how you were so glad you two were dating, a sort of bragging thing for your friends at home to here. You laughed at this and changed into your nightgown while continuing the monologue. You're nightgown wasn't something very appropriate but at the time it was the most comfortable thing for you to be wearing it was read silk and cut off just half way down your thighs. It was rather short and you knew it must look incredibly slutty but your room was right next to this bathroom so who was going see you. You stopped monologue and gave yourself a hard look in the mirror and then sort of messed up your hair a bit. It was too perfect for bedtime. You then proceeded in leaving the bathroom and going into your room but as soon as you'd left the bathroom Draco approached you and you wondered if he had been waiting outside the bathroom door the whole time.

You realized you face was suddenly burning hot and you were blushing. You sort of bit your bottom lip thinking; oh great I must be as red as this silk nightgown. You pretended not to notice the blazing heat of your face as you asked, "Can I help you?" Draco looked at you and said in the monotone voice again, "I'm sorry for what happened earlier on today and I'd like to sort things out." "Whatever," you said, "it's fine. John's going to get the spell, he's looking through books as we speak." Then you walked pass Draco into and went into your bedroom closing the door and putting your clothes in a suitcase laid out at the floor of your plasma TV that was mounted on the wall. You went to go and lie in bed and saw Draco at the door. "I told you John's finding the spell," you protested as he entered the room, "and I never said you could come in." He closed the door, "Your point is?" he said as leaned up against it. "Listen: if you just let me do the spell I'll be on my way. I don't want to be near as much as you don't want be near me," he sneered at you. You rolled your eyes and left the bed for a moment coming closer to him. You saw him look straight in the eyes for a moment which was a first he hadn't looked you in the eye at all. He seemed to look away when he talked to you at all today, like you weren't there or didn't matter, which you knew you must not matter to him. He had the most amazing eyes you thought to yourself, as you looked at little deeper into them. He looked away, breaking the glance and you rolled your eyes again and sighed. "Alright, let's get this over with. Wave your… stick around and return me to the way I was, the way I am, I mean. Well, before…" you were rambling. "Just do it," you said forcefully. He shrugged and took out his wand and mumbled something and you felt a shrinking feeling and you were back down to your average C's. Then he walked up to you until your noses were practically touching and you could feel the warmth of his breath. You felt your face going scarlet and you were about to burst out into reels of laughter. Draco put his hand on your shoulder and pulled your nightgowns strap up, "sorry," he said smiling, "it was bugging me." You were half pissed because he'd been playing with you and half pissed because he hadn't even tried to kiss you. You saw him open the door and you heard yourself say, "Draco." He sighed and turned around, a coy smile played on his lips, "what?" "Shut the door on your way out." He said something under his breath you caught the word muggle as he turned around and left the room slamming the door after him. You turned the covers down, hopped in and laughed yourself to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

You awoke in the morning feeling very groggy and still sleepy. Fighting the urge to get back in to bed and sleep for another hour you hopped out and saw through a bedroom window the sun was shinning brightly above you. It must be afternoon, you thought. You tended to sleep in during the summer, no matter what. Lazily you hopped out of bed and went downstairs to grab some breakfast and bring back up so you could eat and change. You went downstairs into the kitchen and saw the fridge, which was practically glowing with holiness and you could hear the angels sing. You tore open it's door to find a couple things inside, some apples, juice and some meat in the corner. Not much, you thought to yourself, but good enough. You grabbed an apple and got a glass and poured yourself a drink. You quickly drank the juice and then took the apple and ate it on the way back to your room, at least halfway to your room, before John interrupted you with his beautiful brown hair and grey eyes. You heard a whirl of crunching noises as you sunk your teeth into the apple once more and somewhere under that noise you heard John talking to you, with his mouth gaping open, "You… your…". You suddenly realized he meant your chest. Why do guys always have to look there? You stopped eating the apple for a moment and said, "Well, yeah, Draco insisted on "fixing" it. I think someone made him or something." You turned to go back to your room when John followed you. "Wait, a second," he said, "you just let him do that?" You laughed a bit, "well," you said in reply, "it wasn't like I asked him to. He just sort of did it and it was done," you shrugged, taking another bite out your apple as you climbed the stairs to the bedroom hallway. "It's just," said John, pleading after you, "You shouldn't let him do things like that." "Come on," you replied now turning to face John as you reached your bedroom door, "he's harmless. You said it yourself. Remember?" "Yeah, I know I said that, but it's different when it comes to magic. Let's face it you aren't magical." You stopped him there "Excuse me? I am magical enough to accidentally shatter a vase and make someone's clothes disappear with that stick you people call a wand. So if you think for some reason you have more ways to protect me, then shoot, because I'm damn magical enough. Christ, why do you have to split people into groups we're all JUST GOD DAMN people!" you screamed as you entered the your bedroom and slammed the door behind you. If you weren't careful this door might just fall apart from the slamming it may get. You slumped down to the bottom of the door and buried your hands in your face. This place was so alien to you and you just wanted to cry now. You felt so different from everyone else but when you tried to cry the water working didn't turn on and you just ended up with the hiccups.

You changed your clothes so that you were more presentable and turned on the TV and started to flip channels but nothing was on and you could barely understand half of what anyone was saying. You sighed. Being in Britain wasn't going to much fun when you were alone. You went into your suitcase and brought out your laptop but you had not battery and you hadn't brought a charger. You'd have to pick one up later. Again you sighed, realizing you were probably over-sighing. You decided you should go outside and get some fresh air; there no one would be able to bug you. So you walked downstairs and wandered outside the sky was beautiful blue this afternoon and your rather liked that. It cheered you up considerably. You look around, seeing as how you were in the backyard of a house somewhere in the country you didn't see much there were a rather large pond and a whole bunch of trees to the back, making an awfully lush forest.

You decided to head for the forest since no one would see you there and you could easily be alone when you heard a very large whooshing noise coming from the left and as you turned to look at what it was you saw something coming at you extremely fast, it looked like a big brown blur to you and you ducked immediately, so as not to get smacked in the head. "Watch where you're going!" you heard a familiar voice shout at you and as the brown thing landed which now looked a lot like a broom landed you saw it was none other than Draco, who was not dismounting his broom. If this had normally happened to you whilst you were walking with your friends back in Canada you would've jumped up in the air screamed, ran around in a circle three times and sped off so fast you'd of left your shoes behind. However this, you suspected, was probably another magical thing and how stereotypical, you're friend Jenni, who was Wicca would just love this… not. Draco left his broom floating in midair and walked over to you. "What the fuck are you doing out here?" he said walking over to you. "Don't you think someone will mind you using that language to John's friend," you said smugly. "Not when you two just had the "god damn" fight of a lifetime," he replied, smirking. You had nothing to say now until: "well, I can be out here if I want to it's a free country." But was it a free country? You began to think. "Just stay out of my bloody way," he said walking back to his broom. Great, you thought, everyone hates me! Now you were crying. Great timing, you thought as you bit your tongue in hopes that the pain would stop the tears, you swallowed hard and felt the tears melt away.

Draco sighed. He did remember his father, Lucius, distinctly say, "just be nice to her while she's here or while you're here. We can track her down later and kill her if you'd like but for now we are to act reasonably." "Aren't you even going to ask how it works or whatever you muggles do?" he said, after Amanda. "I'm not a muggle," Amanda yelled back, "I could be just as magical as you are!" Draco desperately wanted to bring up how she didn't attend a magical school like he did but he didn't. He felt annoyed just imagining how many questions she'd have then. Instead Draco thought he'd have a little fun, "fine, then prove it. Come over here and fly the broom with me." He hated the fact he'd said with me but if she fell off the broom he'd be in a lot of trouble. Besides she was sort of fit, for a muggle that is. "Alright," she said, approaching him, "why not? How hard can sitting on a broom be?" Draco mounted the broom and waited for Amanda to mount behind him. Then the second she was on he took off zooming around in the air. Draco had sort of hoped she'd fallen off right at the start so he could get a good laugh in but he felt her tight grip around his waist. And although it wasn't as good as laughing at her it wasn't that bad having her depending on him and her pressing herself up against him.

You sped off climbing up, up, up in the air and you could almost feel your ears pop. You were holding on tightly to Draco, too afraid to let go but you tried to just hold on loosely so it didn't seem like you wanted to be holding onto him. Although it wasn't that bad flying up in the air, except for your irritated ears, but it was still much more amazing then being on an airplane. Even the fact that Draco was up there with you didn't ruin it. Let's face it, you thought, he sure is good looking, even if he is a total "git". You felt like you could just fall asleep up among the clouds it was so peaceful. You wanted to rest your head on Draco's back and drift into sleep but then he might suspect you liked him or something, which was entirely not true. Right? It was looks that were the only attraction, his looks. Out of the blue you felt yourself resting your head against your backs and sort of languidly looking at all the clouds around you. You might as well just give in to your urges because when you were up in the clouds nothing matter and you could always just deny it later. After a little while you felt yourself dip down from the cloud into the back to the earth but you didn't want it to be over yet. It wasn't fair.

The broom reached the ground and you opened your eyes but you didn't see the house or anything that looked familiar but you were on the edge of a forest somewhere and pretty much on top of a steep hill. You wondered if Draco was going to try to kill you again felt a bit panic-stricken as you let go of Draco and hopped off the broom. Draco dismounted as well and went to sit under a tree but this time the broom fell to the ground, instead of staying a float. Draco didn't say anything he just seemed to be staring out into space. You realized it was late in the after noon and you must've been flying for a couple hours at least. Wow, you thought, it's really easy to get lost up there. Not physically but mentally you just sort of float away. You went to join Draco under the tree still a little nervous. You looked at him, looking out into space. What was it you that so attracted you to him? There must be something other than his looks. Maybe it was that he wasn't so into you as some other guys were… he was harder to understand and harder to maintain as your little plaything. "What are you staring at?" he suddenly snapped, not looking away from the sky or whatever he was staring intensely at. "Nothing," you replied. You felt you should say something smart but you didn't, as not to ruin the evening or in case he decided to push you down the hill and leave you there. Maybe it was power you began to think. But were you attracted to power. "Stop looking at me!" he said but this time he looked at you when he said it. You looked away this time and collapsed backwards onto the soft grass you put your hand on your stomach and stared about the sky, all the time worrying your tank top was too low-cut. Unexpectedly Draco flopped on top of you. "Get off me," you said to him.

"Why should I?" he said. He was laying on your arms and legs and you couldn't move any of your limbs so you answered the way you would normally answer in this situation: "I'll bite you!" He laughed, "I'll get off you if you answer a few questions." "Answer me these questions three," you said sblack personing and also snorting once before stopping, you tended to snort when you laughed. You were sixteen and you snorted when you laughed. God, you needed help… "Sorry," you cleared your throat, "shoot." "Why did you really come here with me?" he asked. "Well first off, I never said I'd come here I said I'd fly with you and that wasn't so you could tackle me it was because – uhm…" Why did you come again? "… Oh yeah to prove I was just as magical as you are, or something like that." "What were you and Johnny boy fighting about?" he asked. "That's a personal question," you began. He cut you off: "they could get more personal, if you'd like." And since he didn't show any signs of moving you replied with, "We fought about how he should treat me better and I actually did most of the fighting." He nodded, "Final question: If I pinned you down to the ground like this and I did this," he said and then he kissed you, deeply and roughly, "what would you say?" "Uh…" you were at a loss for words, "this is weird. Will you, pleeeease, get off me now?" He rolled his eyes and smiled and then got up off of you. You sat up and looked as the sun just sunk into the horizon and the sky was still somewhat light but sheeted in stars. And as you noticed this you saw a little away from you a huge building that looked almost like a castle. "What is that?" you asked pointing to the building. Draco sighed, "Whatever you think it is, it probably isn't." And his potentially cute moment was gone. You got up and brushed yourself off. "So now what?" you asked. "Now," he said, as you noticed the broom rise again, "you get to prove you magical abilities again." He hopped on and just as you got behind him and were expecting the broom to zip of, it didn't you sat there a moment as it just hovered and he took your hands and wrapped them around his waist. "Feel free to lean against me again," he said and you whooshed back up into the air.

You fell asleep during your "flight" and by the time you got back to the house it was pitch dark out. You remember waking up at the landing and but your eyes were still closed and you felt Draco pick you up and carry you inside but you fell back asleep and you just remember waking up a bit while in bed to John saying very sincerely, "I'm sorry, about today I didn't mean it, but even if you are or aren't magical your not the same as everyone else you're my friend and you're unique and beautiful and amazing." You nodded and John kissed you on the forehead as you dozed back off in a dream about flying but this time you were alone and you felt even more free.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

You woke and sat up, seeing right out your window. Rays of light slipped into the room. Your window was open and the smell coming from it gave you the impression it was morning. You turned to the clock beside your bed; 7:09, it read, was the time. You were surprised that you actually wanted to get up. At home you most likely would've curled right back up in bed and went back to your dreams but currently you were living in them. You were in London, England or maybe not there but you were definitely somewhere in Britain. And you had two gorgeous guys pretty much ogling you to death. I mean so what if one of them was pretty much a prick? He still liked you to some degree, right? You suddenly had the urge to call someone and tell him or her everything! But you realized you couldn't, not with all this magic-mumbo-jumbo. Besides you still needed to pick up a change for you're desktop and you'd also need to find an Internet connection. **And** you thought it was all right to be presumptuous on the fact that these people wouldn't have a computer hooked up to the internet lying around and probably not even a computer, which posed a question: if you hadn't seen a phone or computer around and they didn't use them, how did they communicate? Hmm… you began to wonder on this Breakfast time, you thought, as you snatched up your Anne Rice book, 'The Vampire Lestat'. Today you'd be dining with three gorgeous guys during breakfast.

As you walked down the stairs in your "oh, so skimpy red silk nighty" again but somewhat on purpose this time, you read about Lestat and his encounter with the 'Children of Darkness'. You read this very languidly as you'd read this before, twice before. "You tell him, Lestat," you said, peering over your book and not seeing anyone down in the small lobby. You proceeded down the stairs, through the lobby and into the kitchen. No one was there and, ignoring the grumbling sound in your stomach, you headed in the direction John came from yesterday morning. You saw a door and thought yourself stupid for not seeing it before. You passed through the lobby again but your book was down by your side. After three times Lestat's adventures became a bit dull. He **wasn't** dull, just… the book. You opened the door, or at least you tried, it was locked. You were about to knock when you heard shouts coming from it. "What do you mean?" you heard someone shout rather loudly, receding a bit from the door. You decided to –uh- "overhear" the conversation a bit better and pressed your ear to the door. "You've got to stay here. Draco, I have some business to finish and can't be bothered with you right now." You heard him let out a sharp grunting noise. And then, swish, the door opened and you were practically nose-to-nose with Draco… again. "What happened?" you asked. "Shut-up, you filthy muggle. It doesn't concern you, nothing here concerns you," he said forcefully. "Moody much?" you said, laughing after him. "I said bloody well shut-up! When I tell you do something, you do it," he said as he turned around and drew his wand on you.

You were practically shaking as you stood there stalk still, too flabbergasted to say anything. Then he dropped his arm and stomped towards the back door, knocking over a huge porcelain statue as he went. As soon as he exited to the backyard, you were about to go after him when you felt a hand on your shoulder. You grabbed the arm immediately turned around and gave it a sharp twist and pull. "Oww," grunted a caught-off-guard John. You let go immediately, "Oh, oh! Sorry, sorry. Are you okay?" you asked as you rubbed his elbow and upper-arm. "I'll be fine," he replied, beaming at you. "God, I'm sorry," you said, as you rubbed his elbow and upper arm. "I'll be fine," he said, beaming at you. "God, I'm sorry," you said, "I didn't think…" "Really," he replied, "I shouldn't of caught you so off guard." You gave him a quick grin back and looked out a window showing the backyard (or part of it). You thought you saw a little flick of gold and then Draco zoomed by after it on a broom. "What is his problem?" you all but sneered to John, gesturing to Draco. "What isn't?" he said in reply. You stifled a laugh. "Honestly," you said, turning to face John. There was a long pause as you stared back out the window now and then catching a glimpse of Draco soaring around. "Well…" John began…

"…His dad told him he'd have to stay here for at least a week. I guess he didn't take it too well because, you know, you're –uh-…" You sighed, " 'not magical'. Whatever. You can say it." "Yeah," he continued, "he'd probably rather be at home handing out with his slaves and idiots he refers to as 'friends' and his –uhg- (," John rolled his eyes ") 'girlfriend'". You felt your heart stop beating a moment. Girlfriend? He had a bloody girlfriend?

You just smiled at John and told him you weren't feeling very well as you pretended to walk calmly to your room, while you felt your whole insides crumbling. You sluggishly slipped the book back onto an end table and then melted into your bed. You felt betrayed and lied to, thinking it was all an act, replaying that kiss over and over in your mind. It all meant nothing… to him anyways. Then another kiss began to merge into the other and completely force it out of your mind. You remember John kissing you. Your stomach let out another hungry growl but you ignored and quickly decided to get dressed. You were ready to seduce as you exited the bathroom next to your room in a black skirt; low-cut, v-neck, three finger strap tank top that was also black and said hot in the left bottom corner in red script; you had put on concealer, pink eye shadow, mascara, some glitter to the corner of your eyes and some kiss gloss; not to mention hoop earrings, a little silver fairy necklace and an anklet to accent your naked feet. You were irresistible. You saw John coming down the hallway, his eye in a thick old book that was entitled "Myths and Legends: A Deeper Reading on Creatures and Icons". You thought to yourself: "perfect timing", and then said (in your humble opinion) one of the sexiest words of the English language, "hello." He didn't look up but replied with an: "'ey". You sighed and tore the book away from him. You gazed in on it as you heard a crash of thunder. "Interesting," you said. "You think?" he asked. "No," you said, closing the book, "but you **are**." You dropped the book with a thud but as he bent down to snatch it up again you took him by the hands and pulled him into your room. "I have something for you," you said, as you watched him turn his head to look at the book in the hallway. "Well," he said, turning his head towards you, "I actually have something for you too, but earlier this morning… did seem like the right time, you know, seeing as how you were sick and all. But here," he leaned towards you and then revealed a wooden box from his pocket. You smiled a little and took the wooden box. Not knowing what to say, you opened it. Inside was an eleven-inch wand.

You took it out of its casing and tossed the box onto your bed. It was so nice of him to –er- really get you something, you thought. "Uh, why don't you try it out? I didn't know what wand type you were but you seemed to be able to use Draco's fairly well so I just had them get a copy of it down at 'Olivander's' and I know it's technically illegal but, I thought, they haven't caught us yet and well – what do you think?" You swished the wand around and the tip began to glow yellow, then the TV fell off the wall. "I love it!" you screamed and latched onto John, wand firmly grasped in your right hand.

He laughed a bit, "Well, that's good. So what'd you say you had for me?" Had you been paying attention you would've leapt onto John a covered him in kisses, but you weren't paying attention. You were thinking of how you couldn't wait to show Draco and rub it in his face that apparently "non magical" people could operate wands. Then you realized, he hated your guts and would probably never even look at you again the way things were going. "Oh, never mind," you said to John, coming out your stupor, "You probably won't… wouldn't have liked it." And with that you gave him a hug and peck on the cheek and skipped out of the room.

It was raining out. Hard. You knew this because as you climbed down the stairs you could hear the rain ricocheting off the roof. You could also hear the thunder mingled with the rain, and began to feel a bit worried about going out after Draco. You walked outside and after two steps you were soaked. You opened your eyes and yelled, "Draco!" Although you may as well have been opening your eyes under water since every time you did you felt you them pelted with drop of water. The downfall started to get even heavier and you opened your eyes again, still feeling the raindrops pelt them but ignoring the raindrops in return. You felt the raindrops now stinging your arms with their mass but ignored them still. "Draco!" you yelled again and you saw something zoom towards you. It almost knocked you over and you ducked. Then you heard a voice through all the thudding of rain, "what do **you** want, muggle?" You sighed and replied with a typical, "I wish you'd stop calling me that," as the broom zoomed around you. "Ha, keep wishing," he replied. You sneezed and began to feel a bit dizzy following Draco's pattern in the sky, which was more just random pacing. "John, got me a wand," you yelled as you heard a crash of thunder and saw a flash of lightening in the sky. He didn't say anything, "it's –uh- just like yours." Nothing. "What?" you hollered, "cat got your tongue?" "Shut-up you muggle-slut! Go back inside," he yelled, but you could barely hear him over the thud of the rain. "Fine!" you screamed, "sorry, you're struck with me for the next week!" Frustrated, sneezing and soaking you stomped off towards the door and heard the thunder and saw another flash of lightening following it. You were a bit worried still, though you didn't admit it. After all Draco was still human, even if he was a total jerk. So you began to count the seconds between the roars of thunder. 1… 2… 3… 4… 5… 6… CRASH went the thunder, flash went the lightening. You shuddered as you stood just by the door, gazing out the window at the whooshing broom that was barely visible at its speed. You were debating whether or not to go outside and warn Draco or not. You hated him, with a passion, at the moment, but as you counted again you realized the lightening must be getting closer. A mere four seconds. How long would it be before Draco was in danger? Should you go back and try to warn him?


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

You wiped at your eyes. Water slopped down off them. You didn't have long. You peered down at your hands in thought and noticed they were covered in make-up. You were so deep in thought that by the time John reached you, book still in hand, and muttered a question you jumped about seven feet in the air. "What!" you snapped. "Sorry," John said, "didn't mean to scare you. You're soaked! Did you go out there?" John shot an angry glare at the blur of the broom. Another crash of thunder echoed in the background. "Come with me and we'll get you warmed up," John said. You barely heard him over your own thoughts. "There are extra blankets upstairs and some towels, I think," he said now. You began to listen to him falling out of your daze and deciding to head upstairs but you couldn't hear what John said over the next crash of thunder and you asked him to repeat it. "I was just asking if you'd just like me to dry you off. My mum used to dry me off with magic when I was little. I don't quite remember the spell she used but I think it went something -" John was cut off again by a loud crack of thunder. Only this time you practically jumped and bumped up against him. He wasn't expecting this and you could tell when he half caught you and you both lost your balance and tumbled to the floor with a loud thud.

The lights went out and then flickered back on. You noticed John had collided with the large statue that had been shattered this morning but seemed perfectly fine this evening prior to the collision. John was quite bloody and you suddenly felt a large pain in your right arm. You gasped and so did John at the sight of the blood. "Are you okay?" John asked, propping himself up and beginning to cradle you in his arms. You didn't answer him for a second and gasped some more. The pain felt like a large bee sting and like half of your arm was missing. You let out a whimper and then said, "I think so..." or tried to say that but when you went to look down to observe the damage you saw to your horror it was much worse than you thought. The cut ran from your right pointer finger to about half way up your arm. The cut was not only long but also deep and wide. The blood gushed out in torrents as you stammered an, "I'm fine." John also glared at the cut and went to pull a piece of porcelain from it but halted when he saw you withdrawal your arm and slowly stand up. As you arrived to a vertical position you felt very dizzy and that your mind was beginning to go numb. It was an awkward silence and you heard no thunder and no whooshing of a broom outside either. You slowly looked to the window and then back at John. His forehead was all cut up and so was a bit of his neck and both of his upper arms as well as his left forearm and hand. You felt very squeamish at this and took a few steps backward. Suddenly John also looked out the window. "I don't see Draco..."

You heart sped up as you looked from John to the window again. You stared intently outside and listened closely. As soon as your brain confirmed that you heard nothing you turned to John. He seemed very solid though blood gushed from everywhere on him. You went to hug him but somehow when he caught you the hug turned into a dopey embrace and a very sluggish kiss. You gave him a look in the eye and smiled somewhat. "I've got to find Draco even if he's a total jerk. He's my total jerk." Then you bolted out the door.

As you clambered down the stairs trying to prevent yourself from slipping and sliding everywhere you came across roughly a third of a very charred broomstick. The rain had lightened a bit and the sky was beginning to clear but it was still hard to see through the rain. As you looked around you there were no signs of life to be seen. The rain continued to beat down and your arm was beginning to really sting. You tried to scream out a "Draco!" but it came out a sort of whinny noise instead. You stumbled around in the rain for another second before noticing John coming towards you from the house. 'No,' you thought, 'not yet. I haven't found him yet.' You began to feel very disoriented and stumbled toward a green blur. Then your knees gave way and you half collapsed. You sat for a moment there and closed your eyes and then wet your lips, though they were soaked already. You heard a moan and opened your eyes to look below you.

There on the grass was Draco and you realized you had collapsed right onto his legs. The picture blurred and you lost your focus for a second. Then you gave in to the pain and rolled over flopping onto the grass beside him. You looked at his pale and trembling face for a moment. Glad to see he was somewhat alive. "Are you okay?" you asked, barely audible above the sound of rain. Dracos eyes flashed open and he looked at your for a moment. "What're you doing here, muggle? I told you to go inside." "And I told you to come with me," you said, "You see what happens when we don't listen to one another." A sly smile began to play on his lips but it was just visible on his face because the rest was covered with pain. The smile also quickly vanished before the pain took over. You let out another whimper and you saw Dracos face go soft. "You've b'en cut," he said. You felt his arm clasp around the wound. He squeezed and then he kissed you. The pain was unbearable and as nausea took over you lost consciousness. Yet again.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

It was early in the morning when you awoke and dawn had not yet broken on this new day. You were silently amazed at how little supervision went on here. You smoothed your left arm across your right and didn't feel a scab, scar or any evidence that you'd ever had a cut there. Your eyes were still closed shut. But you felt cool air on them and saw just blackness which was the hint it was still dark out. Now you braced yourself and opened them gently. At first you saw a blur of nothing and then the blur turned into Draco. He was huddling over you. He sneered but for a second you thought you saw a glimpse of a smile. "Have some water," he said as you sat up and looked past him at John who was in a corner of the room in your chair and sleeping. Then you noticed a glass of water floating in front of you. "No, thanks," you said hoarsely, too stubborn to take that glass of water was just what you had been craving. "What are you doing here? What am I doing here? What happened last night?" you asked as you pushed the glass of water away with your left arm as it clumsily bumped up against you. Draco sighed and took out his wand and gave it a little flick. You watched the glass wander back to the bedside table. Draco's eyes dwindle down towards your chest. You looked down for a second (giving yourself a major chin while doing so) and on your bed you saw a large green snake. You were very startled by this and sat up abruptly, knocking the sheet off you and the snaked onto your lap. You heard Draco snigger. You glared up at him. Then you grabbed the snake by its neck and threw it at him, however, though it smacked Draco before disappearing which made you chuckle it also somehow managed to bite you. You cut began to sting. And when you looked down at the wounds you began to worry. As soon as Draco saw it he was in frenzy. "Fuck," he cursed under his breath. Then he ran downstairs pulling you along with him. You tried not to fall as he pulled you down the stairs and then he just sort of snatched you up complaining about how slow you were. He dragged you to the kitchen. He waved his wand around a bit and soon he was dicing and tossing things into a bubbling pot that had flame underneath it. The flame seemed to come from nowhere though. It was as if it was part of the cauldron. You admired this a moment and then two seconds later Draco was pouring some vile concoction down your throat. You swallowed it and then clearly said, "now get your hands off me!" Draco looked at you, panicked a moment and then a sly smirk came on his face. "Alright," he said, "I'll just take a step back and admire from here." You looked a bit quizzical a moment and then looked down. You saw that you were merely clad in your knickers and bra and one sock. You let out a scream and scrambled upstairs. Upstairs there was a dark figure clad entirely in a black sheet and caring a green lamp. You let out another blood curdling scream.

Then you broke into a cold sweat and sat up in bed. It was dark outside still. And you felt suddenly scared. It was as though there were that fear of a monster under your bed. You turned to your left and saw that Draco was lying there sleeping and giving off a rather irritable snore. You noticed also that you were in fact wearing your knickers, your bra and one sock. You wanted to scream but just whimpered and pulled of the one sock, throwing it into the dark abyss that was the end of your bed. Then taking a huge gulp and sucking in your bit of pudge you snuggled up to Draco and allowed him to snore obnoxiously into your ear. You started to breath very heavily though as you heard something stir in the corner. It was a muffled rustling sort of sound and it scared you to death. All you could picture was that ghastly-unknown creature draped in the black sheet and carrying that green light. You saw no green light but that frightened you even more that all you could see was blackness. You wished suddenly that you hadn't closed your blinds and pulled the covers up over your head and Dracos chest. Draco moved slightly to the side or attempted to but was pinned down by your fear and weight. He stirred in his sleep and let out a soft moan. You suddenly realized why he was moving so much and so relaxed. It was not a nightmare Draco was having and you felt this clearly on your right thigh. Despite the situation you began to giggle a bit but then you heard something take a rather heavy step and you stopped the giggling abruptly. Draco tried to move again but you wouldn't let him move and be seen. Then you moved your hand around on Draco, attempting to look for his wand. It wasn't on his side table and it wasn't in his shirt pocket so it could only be somewhere in his boxers. You sighed and felt someone watching you. Was this really worth your life? You swallowed and then began to search Draco's boxers for his wand. You found the wand you didn't want first and were slightly astonished at how big it was but immediately went back to your task of looking for Draco's real wand. Nothing to his right and then you thought you felt something to his left. You moved on to him a bit more to get a better feel.

Draco suddenly sat up. "Wha-" he began to say but you took your hand and covered his mouth. "Shut-up" you muttered, "Is there something behind me?" you asked. He pulled your hand off his mouth and you realized how close you were at that moment. Your faces were separated by about an inch of space. "Don't tell me to shut-up. What the fuck is wrong with you? Leaning all over me like that. What are you doing?" he asked. You didn't hear anything from behind you. You assumed all that rustling and walking was in your mind. So you said to Draco, "I thought there was something in the dark." "Something in the dark? Yeah, me, I see you discovered that," Draco replied. You hopped out of Dracos lap and on to your side of the bed. You glanced into the dark for one more reassurance. You saw nothing. "Yeah," you said and gestured toward his boxers, "you." You giggled a bit more and lay back down. "Shut up, muggle," he said.

"Hey you're the one who seems most muggle at this point in time," you sniggered. Then Draco pinned you down to the bed. "I said shut-up, muggle, but maybe you didn't hear me." He pushed you farther down into the bed. You felt the springs beneath you and it hurt. "Stop it, Draco. Oww. You're hurting me. Stop…" you said but he only pushed harder, "Uncle!" you shouted and he released you. "Where is there an Uncle? What are you going on about?" he asked sort of looking behind him. Then you flipped him onto his back and began to dig your nails into his stomach, "Uncle is another term for I give. And once you give we can stop this nonsense." Suddenly you were pushed back with great force. "Did you forget that I'm a damn good wizard and that you're a vulnerable muggle for a moment there?" he said getting back up. You sighed, "Uncle." He didn't seem to hear you though. "Uncle!" you shouted again.

"I don't want to hear Uncle.But youcan continue on talking aboutyour uncle or you could talk about me," Draco said, smiling. "Sure," you said, you mimicked a really high-pitched voice and said, "Draco you're so great and I looooove you and just can't wait till you get me on my back. Uhn. Uhn. You're so sexy." You rolled your eyes. You were then released. He laughed a bit, "Not very creative, you probably say that to every guy you meet." "Oh yeah," you said with a tone of sarcasm, "every guy. If you couldn't guess I was mimicking your girlfriend." You turned onto your side. Sick of this game and of Draco and just tired. "What girlfriend?" he asked leaning over you. "Yours," you stated. "Which one?" he laughed. "Stop playing stupid," you finally said, getting frustrated, "You know what I mean, your girlfriend. How could you kiss me when…?" you stopped and felt your eyes swell with tears. You bit your tongue and concluded with a "never mind". "I don't have a girlfriend," he said but his tone was softer and very serious. "Really?" you asked turning to him and letting a tear slide down the side of your face. "No girlfriend," he said. Then he pulled you up off the bed towards him and kissed your forehead. You snorted a bit and kissed his nose. Then he gently kissed your mouth. It was different from the kiss and not as demanding. The kiss grew and then became French. You felt yourself floating down towards the pillow as Draco reached for your bra clasp. Being a guy that he was he couldn't get it undone and just as you went to assist him your door opened to reveal some eerie light coming from the hallway.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

You immediately pulled away from Draco and stared at the bottom of the door. You felt Draco's hands on your waist. You heart began to rapidly pulsate. You slumped out of the bed and looked for your clothes. "What are you doing now?" he asked. You opened your dresser and pulled on a pair of pants, tossing on a buttoned up blouse on lazily. "I'm going to see what that is," you replied as you glanced at the door. The green light was just visible underneath the door. "It's probably nothing," Draco said folding his arms and putting them back behind his head. He stretched and let out a bit of a yawn. "It's probably just… a hallway light," he said. "A green one?" you questioned, not looking behind you as you buttoned up the shirt wrong so that the buttons and the wholes on the other side mismatched each other. You shrugged after doing up three and decided that was as good as it was going to get. Draco didn't say anything. "So are you going to come and help me investigate or what?" you asked. "Now why would I want to do that?" he asked you glancing in your direction. "What if I get murdered or something or –like- spontaneously implode!" you accused. "That's a chance I'm willing to take," and with that Draco took a wand from under his pillow and waved it around a bit to make a magazine apparate, "didn't think of checking under the pillow, eh muggle?" Humph. You rolled your eyes and then turning the knob and sauntered out into the hallway.

Draco lay out on the bed, flipping through his Quidditch Weekly magazine. Amanda had been out in the hallway for a couple minutes but he assumed she hadn't found the source of the green light since the rays were seeping through under the door. He couldn't imagine playing detective with her as he flipped the page. He could imagine playing doctor with her though. He half smirked at his sexual ideas and then turned the page to read an article on – BANG, SMASH, SCREAM! Amanda's scream was ringing through his ears as he dropped the magazine and with a shaking arm grasped his wand and swung himself out of bed.

You had followed the light into a room and as soon as you opened the door something fell with a smash and a cloaked or sheeting figure whooshed out and grabbed your left wrist. You'd let out a deafening scream in horror and then there was a flash of green light. You heard yourself breath heavily in the darkness and then the lights turned on in the hallway. "What happened?" Draco asked, rushing down the hallway to your side, "Are you alright?" "I'm fine," you replied, "and I don't know what happened. I just followed the light to this room and… there was a sort of shattering noise and then someone grabbed my wrist and there was this flash of light and… then you were here." Draco looked at the half opened door and then looked at you. You stood up and taking in a breath of air gave the door a push. The door swung open and there in the room was John. He didn't say anything. Just sort of sat there. His book was on the floor. He was staring at you with cold eyes. Your mouth felt dry. You licked your lips and then exhaled. "Heh-heh, it's only you. It's only John, Draco," you said but neither John nor Draco said anything. Draco did walk past you to where John was and closed his eyes. "Wh-what are you doing?" you asked. It was odd, all of it. "He's dead," Draco said very plainly.

"N-no," you replied laughing nervously, "maybe he's just asleep or tired or something." You briskly walked across the room and pressed your heart to his chest. You didn't hear anything. No beating of John's heart. No thumping sign of life there. You went to take his pulse but Draco pulled you to your feet, "He's dead, Amanda. C'mon now we've got to--" "No!" you shouted with tears standing in your eyes, "he's not dead. John, wake-up!" You shook John to the core yelling at him to wake-up and then your shook yourselves with sobs. "He and I were friends. I may not have met him until now but I knew him through web conversations. We've been friends for two years. He can't be gone. I must be dreaming or something," you slumped down onto the floor, "I know him so well. His favourite flavour of ice cream is rocky-road and his favourite colour is blue. He loves comedies and he doesn't understand what recycling is all about. He won't leave his house without hugging his mum. His chums called him Wiz because he's an amazing chess player. He can run two kilometres in 8 and half minutes. And I love him. He can't be dead. No. He can't be… He isn't…" you stared at the floor feeling the tears racing down your face like John when he was on the track. You remembered all those late night conversations you'd shared. How much you'd been waiting to see him. All of second semester and for what? You came here and totally ignored him. You shut yourself up like a book. Selfish all you could think about was Draco. Draco, who was the one standing two steps away from you speechless and motionless. Draco, telling you had to get up. You had to go somewhere. People couldn't see you with John dead there on the chair. You looked at the discarded book on the floor it was the works of Edger Allen Poe. All you'd thought about since you'd got there was Draco. You'd never asked about John's wizarding life, wondered where his parents were, why he'd kissed you… You were a terrible friend. And he was just an amazing, brilliant, beautiful dead friend and there would be no more late night conversations and no more wondering and you'd ever know.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

You sobbed at John's side wiping you tears away with your hand. Your eyes were brimming with salty drops of water. You leaned down and sobbed on his lap and tears poured all over the corpse that was once John. All you could do was cry. You felt as though if you stopped the world would end and that this crying and heartbroken feeling would go on forever.

"Shut-up, muggle," groaned Draco, marching over to you, "Shut-up. You'll wake someone." But still you didn't stop you went on with your ongoing crying clutching to the pants that still clung to John's lifeless legs and hips. Draco cursed under his breath then just stood over you for moment. He let out a long sigh and finally you heard him say, "Amanda, if you I _don't /i _stop someone will come and we'll be accused of killing Johnny boy here. Is that how you want to go? To a wizard prison for all your life? Or perhaps an execution would suit you better?" You gave him no reply. Next time he spoke he tried a different approach, he crouched down and you felt his arm slide around your shoulders. He gave a glance around the room, groaned a bit and furrowed his eyebrows. "Listen, Amanda, this isn't going to bring him back. And you've got to come with me. We can't stay here now. Could you stop blubbering for a second?" he turned you towards him and looked you straight in your leaking eyes. You continued to cry but you couldn't turn away. "You can't stay here. I can't stay here. We have to go. Now you can either let me comfort you to the broom or you can let me toss you over my shoulder and drag you to the damn broom. Which one's it going to be?" You lip began to quiver and you wiped a few stray tears away. As you opened your mouth to speak you just began to cry loudly again. Draco winced, "Dragging it is." You then immediately picked you up and indeed swung you over his shoulder. As you were carried out of the room still crying you saw the shaky view of John and felt a scream rising in your throat.

The scream escaped you when went to the hall. "Put me down!" you shouted and began to claw and beat at Draco's back, "Down, down, DOWN!" "No bloody way," he said firmly. With a pop, squeeze and nauseas whirring you were then back on that cliff where Draco had first kissed you. He put you down and you collapsed to floor still sobbing somewhat. "Why are we here?" you cried out. "As far as we can get," Draco muttered looking out on the horizon at… nothing, "Have to fly the rest of the way." "What way? Where are you taking me?" you demanded now getting very angry. "I'm not 'taking' you anywhere we're going somewhere. Together," he replied. He flushed a bit after saying together. "How can you say that so calmly!" you were now furious. Everything was going all wrong. John was dead you were running away from your vacation location. No, you were being held captive and who knew where in hell's name you were going? Draco was looking off into the forest. The suns rays were beginning to peak up over the horizon. "Answer me!" you shouted, "Answer me!" Draco was still looking off in the distance. Finally you got so fet-up that you just jumped up and went after Draco. You tackled him to ground and screamed, "Listen to me!" He pushed you off of him and sat up, "you broke my concentration!" "I don't give a damn! Now you listen here. I want to go home right this instant." He broke out in laughter, "You want to … go home?" "Yes, and you, Draco Malfoy are going to damn well take me there," you stated sitting up and brushing the dirt off of you. "Mmmm-hmmm," he said, "Well Amanda McKnight, let me just tell you something then. I am not taking you home. You are coming with me and we're going to be in hiding for awhile and you are going to shut your mouth and behave like a good little muggle," he said. "Oh shut-up, Draco," you argued back, "You don't have the balls. I know you're all weak for me. You pretend to hate me but I've seen that look before. You try to be tough but you're all words and no action. So you listen to me I'm going home." Draco opened his mouth to say something but then shut it right up again. He gave you a dirty look and made his wand appear from thin air. Then he looked back into the forest. Satisfied you crawled back up to him and lay down on his lap. "What are you doing now?" he muttered, continuing to look into the forest. "Sleeping," you replied, yawning and drying your eyes and then curling up onto him, "What does it look like?"

Draco gave you smirk, still keeping his eyes on the wood and just muttered, "you're a very strange muggle." "No," you corrected, "I'm just a very strange girl." The grin stayed on his face, "My very strange girl." You didn't correct him there, just simply smiled to yourself. You were Draco's girl. Weren't you?

You went off to sleep but were awoken a short while later by Draco attempting to get up. You shook yourself and sat up. The warm sun was shining on your face now and you were surprised it hadn't woken you. The morning was very beautiful and as you admired the dew-strewn grass, the clothed trees and the beautiful sound of a trickling stream near off you couldn't help but let your worries melt away. That was, of course until Draco picked you up and put you on the broom in front of him. As soon as you saw Draco all the worries and sorrows of last night rushed back to you. The green light, John's dead body, all of it was thrown upon you like some very weighty dumbbell. Draco wrapped his arms tightly around you as you both began to soar through the air.

The blue skies made you relax a bit more and you just began to hover in nothingness for a while. Then Draco giving you a bit of a tug asked, "Did you sleep well?" "I guess so," you replied, "How long was I asleep for?" "Not long," he said and then he changed right back into himself, "But long enough for your heavy blubbering head to make my legs fall asleep. I was numb from the waist down getting up." You didn't reply to this. Draco cleared his throat and began again, barely audible above the whooshing of the air, "What I said, earlier, about you being –uh- mine would you…? Maybe--" You were about to answer when all of the sudden a castle appeared out of thin air. It wasn't there a moment ago but you just blinked and it appeared. "Is that a castle?" you interjected, "Are we going to that castle? It that –like- where wizards go when they murder people?" Draco muttered something about hogs getting warts but you didn't see at all how that was related to a castle. Your mind was immediately filled with presumptuous ideas about the castle and you were quite with thinking up until and past the moment you reached a tower and landed.


	11. Chapter 11

The sun had risen completely as you landed on the flat landscape below.

"Where are we?" you asked, looking up at the large stone castle.

"C'mon and see for yourself," Draco replied as got off the back of the broom and extended his hand to you.

You gave him a quick grin and took it.

He pulled you down towards him and off the broom. He wrapped his arms around you and snatched the levitating broom from the air. You felt his body against yours but you couldn't bring yourself to kiss him. After staring into your eyes a moment he then pulled away, obviously upset that you hadn't made to kiss him. "Let's go then," he muttered as he wandered off, back to you.

You rushed after him across the field and took his hand to show a little affection towards him. "So where are we?" you asked, leaning into him.

He warmed up to you and clasped your hand heartily, replying: "This is my school."

He seemed very proud about this and you were, frankly, impressed. Your high school with three floors and circular shape was nothing compared to his castle of a school.

"Wow," you exclaimed, "I mean, wow… it's a – castle."

"It's not bad," he said, shrugging off the compliment.

You snuggled up into him as his hand let go of yours to move to you waist.

"Why are we at your fancy castle of a school then?" you asked, resting your head on Draco's shoulder.

There was a long pause and you could tell Draco was going to blurt out some horrible lie. "I just thought," he started.

"The truth would be nice," you said, abruptly.

"It's not safe back there but at Hogwarts, where we are now, it's safe."

"But how are we supposed to get in?"

"The doors aren't locked, Amanda, the school is already hidden to muggles."

"Oh," you said, not comprehending, "so no one's here. Right?"

"Nope. Just me – and you."

"Uh-huh," you said, "What about food and beds and stuff like that?"

"We'll get the house elves to make our meals and we can stay in the Slytherin dormitories. I should expect the boy's."

You pulled away a bit and laughed, "We're going to stay in the same room?"

"Well, yeah," he replied, "worked last night. And we wouldn't want you sneaking away? Would we?"

"Sneak away? Me? And where would** I **go?"

"I don't know. But I like the idea of you only being able to sneak from your bed into mine."

You laughed, "Oh contraire! The only sneaking going on will be coming from you – from **your **bed to _mine_."

He laughed a little and then his eyes completely caught your eyes. You saw them shine a bit in the sunlight as though they were silver and then you blushed and turned away. You stared at the ground for a moment before you felt him grab your wrists and then pulled you towards him. He wasn't smiling now. His immature self was hidden behind a vale or seriousness. As you looked up into his eyes he opened his mouth to say something.

"Amanda," he began.

You looked away. And you felt your eyes filling with tears suddenly. One thought had been plaguing your mind since you'd gotten here and while you were up in the sky. Had he killed John?

One of his hands let go of your wrist to grab your jaw. He forced you to look at him and then he cupped your face in his hand and said, "I know this isn't the time for any of this. I know I seem like an… arrogant jerk but I think I love--"

Just as Draco was about to finish his sentence hopefully with a "you" someone came rushing out of the castle at you. Draco dropped one hand from your face, squinting in the sunlight as you stared at him. You were stunned at the fact he had called himself arrogant. You thought he was more self-absorbed than that. Now he just let you go and took a step away from you. You tried to get closer to him to whisper the question, "who is that?" as you looked at the white figure running out toward you. However Draco just kept backing away from you as though you were some poisonous plant.

Finally the white figure had caught up to the both of you and you saw now it was not some "white figure" but a very old looking man who was also odd looking. The whiteness you had seen must have been his long beard that went from his face to the ground. He also wore moon spectacles that only seemed to add creases to his almost leather looking face. He wore a long purple robe with many different symbols on it. They seemed to change in the angle of the light. It was quite magical. He also held a very large staff with him as though he would be going mountain climbing some time soon. He kind of reminded you of your grandpa only more mysterious.

"Ah, Mr Malfoy," he said, slowly and in a pleasantly thick voice, "What brings you to Hogwarts this morning? I don't remember seeing your name on the list for schooling throughout this summer. Did you sign up?"


	12. Chapter 12

Draco answered very reluctantly as though this man were also a poisonous plant, "No, I didn't sign up… Professor."

"That's quite alright your father told me, last night, that you might be dropping by this morning," he said giving him a wink.

Draco only looked very angrily at the man as though he had just confessed to killing his father instead of mentioning a memo he had received.

"Everything has been arranged for you and," he began, now turning towards you, "Ms McKnight, is it?"

"Yes," you replied and then added a quick, "sir." And smiled.

"Yes, yes. All is good. I hear you are going on an exchange program from one of the North American schools for Witchcraft and Wizardry," he said and gave nod to himself, as though he were telling himself about the school instead of you.

You began to protest, "Well, sir, you see--"

"No need to explain, Ms McKnight, all the paper work has been taken care of," he concluded, "Luscious has required you stay with Mr Malfoy here and take up board in the Slytherin house during your stay. I think that is a wise idea." Here he paused and looked at Draco as he sent you a smile. You rolled your eyes at Draco as the Professor continued, "However I do believe a tour is in turn and so I have asked another student, Mr Longbottom, to show you around."

"I_ can _show her around… Professor," Draco stated.

"No, Mr Malfoy that will not be required. I'm sure Mr Longbottom will prove to be an excellent guide," he said to Draco a little sternly, then he turned to you and said, "After your tour Ms McKnight you will report to the dungeons where Professer Snape will give you your schedule for your stay and then Mr Longbottom will take you to the great hall where you will find Mr Malfoy and I think the two of you can take it from there for the rest of the day," the Professor gave a bit of a nod to you.

You nodded back.

"Alright then," he said as he began to turn to go. "Oh," he interjected turning around to face you again, "how very impolite of me. I'm Professor Dumbledore, Ms McKnight. If you need to discuss anything about school or anything of that sort you may find me by using that name." And with one smile the Professor Dumbledore was gone.

"…I mean who does he think he is telling us where to go," finished Draco as you reached the castle.

"Perhaps the Head of the school," you said, "Besides I thought he was rather nice."

"Nice! Nice? Phff," Draco replied, "What do you know about nice?"

"Obviously more than you," you replied a little bitterly.

"And now your going to have to walk around with Longbottom," he complained.

"You mean that Neville guy? What's wrong with him?" you asked.

"He's a total klutz – Here comes the idiot now," laughed Draco.

You turned and saw a boy with dark hair and rather protruding teeth walking towards you.

"Shut up," you muttered to Draco as he continued to laugh at the poor guy coming towards you. You elbowed Draco in the ribs as hard as you could as Neville came up to you.

"Uh, h-hi. Are you Amanda McKnight?" he asked.

"No, she's – she's not," said Draco while he was doubled over, "Just a menace to my health now get out of here, Longbottom. When I need a moron we can talk." He stifled another laugh at Neville's expense and then tried to shove you along.

"Uh -- Oh, alright then. I'll – I'll just go… I'm sure she's around here –uh- somewhere," Neville said as he begun to shuffle off.

"No. Erm, Neville? I am Amanda McKnight. Draco here was just joking."

At the name "Draco" Neville began to look around, "Oh, right, Malfoy." Neville put on a very large smile and you thought to yourself that he looked very cute when he smiled.

"So, Mr Longbottom, are you going to show this Canadian lady around or what?" you asked.

"Of course," he replied, giving a little bow and extending his arm, "Madame?"

You took his arm, playfully and looked back at the rather loathsome looking Draco. You blew him a kiss and waved, "See you later… cousin," you said.

"…And finally this is the dungeon," concluded Neville presenting the door.

"Wow," you said, "very… in with the atmosphere. Do you guys keep peasants in jail cells and stuff?"

Neville grinned at you, "not that I know of."

"And… what happened to you here?" you asked. Neville had a story for almost every single room in this school. He'd had an accident almost everywhere and had had every kind of accident from fainting numerous times to being dropped 15 feet from the sky and shattering the bone in his leg.

Neville flushed, "You don't want to hear about this…"

"Yes, I do," you coaxed, "c'mon be a good tour guide. Let's hear about experiences."

He glowered, finding pride in all his injuries and began, "Well it was a year or so back and we were in Potions with Snape and Seamus and I were making a--"

Suddenly the dungeon door swung open and you jumped. Neville however got smacked in the face. You quickly kneeled down.

"Are you okay, Neville?" you asked.

"Yeah – Yeah. I'm – I'm fine. Just a bruise," Neville got up.

You shot him a quick smile, "hey there's another one to add to your list, I guess."

You both laughed a bit and he nodded, rubbing the back of his skull.

Both of you now put your attention on the cause of all the commotion and saw a figure clad in black robes that could only be described as stringy, long, black and greasy and that was just his hair! The man's skin looked clammy and very pale. He had a large nose and eyes that were black like a shark's. He gave you what could be called a grin and, you supposed, in his case was one.

"Ms McKnight, I presume. Yes, I have your schedule," after stating this man drifted back into the dungeon or –er- classroom. You and Neville followed him. "I'm Professor Snape, by the way."

You and Neville were on the way to great hall as Neville told you about how he had had his rememberall stolen first year. You weren't frankly listening but you nodded and smiled as you looked at your timetable.

You had Muggle Studies, Potions, Divinity and Herbology. Muggle Studies would be a cinch since you were a Muggle or… Person Without The Privileges of Magic. Potions sounded pretty easy all you had to do was mix stuff together. You had no idea what Divinity was but it didn't sound very easy and you weren't happy to hear that you would have to take something so difficult. Herbology sounded mediocre. It would be like any regular science course, you assumed. After all Herbology was just another term for study of herbs. Right?

"Amanda… were you… listening? I stopped talking about five minutes ago but you just kept on nodding and smiling at your timetable," Neville asked.

"Yes. Of course I was. Remberall and stuff. Right?" you lied.

Neville looked doubtful.

"No, sorry," you said, "I wasn't. If you want to tell it again I'll listen. I was just thinking so… yeah."

"What were you thinking about?" he asked.

"Oh –uhm- just this schedule thing. It's just at my school we don't have the exact same –uh- subjects," you replied.

Neville nodded. All was silent for a moment. And then Neville asked, "Is Malfoy really your cousin?"

"Well--" you began trying to quickly think up a lie when a very good-looking distraction interrupted your thoughts.

He came from two very large doors in front of both Neville and yourself. He had dark short hair and rather stunning blue eyes.

"'Oy! Neville, s'at you?" he asked rushing towards Neville. You noticed he had a slight Irish accent, which only made him sexier in your opinion.

"Yeah," Neville replied.

"Where've you been?" he asked.

"I was giving Amanda here a tour. Dumbledore asked me too and everything. Amanda McKnight this is Seamus Finnigan. He's in the Gryffindor house I was telling you about, like me," Neville introduced.

"Pleasure's all mine," you said, giving Seamus a huge smile.

"Nice to –uh- meet you," Seamus replied seemingly breathless. You realized he was as tall as you with your pumps on, whereas Draco was about an inch taller. You don't know why but that seemed to have some sort of significance at the time.

You remember Draco suddenly and thought you should probably bolt. "Is that the great hall, Neville?" you asked, not looking away from Seamus.

"Uh – yeah," Neville replied.

"Okay well I better get to Seamus. I mean, Draco. I better get to Draco," you corrected flushing red, "Well now that I've totally embarrassed myself," you said with a nervous laugh, "It was nice to meet you, Seamus. See you later, Neville." And with that you dashed off to the great hall red as a beet, in the face.

Seamus watched Amanda run off.

"Well," he said, "she's different."

"Yeah," replied Neville, "she is. She wasn't even wearing robes, eh?"

"Frankly I'd rather date that than an old pair of robes," Seamus said.

"I s'pose," said Neville, "but I'd watch out if I were you. She's Draco's cousin."

"Yeah, yeah," said Seamus, dismissing the point.

"It's true, you know. Dumbledore told me so," Neville said as he and Seamus walked back into the great hall.

"She's a little nice to be Draco's cousin and not at all impish. Doesn't really add up. But they sure seem friendly. Don't they?" Seamus asked, suspiciously.

Amanda was trying to snatch a chair to sit beside Draco but Draco was making chair after chair disappear and Amanda began to laugh and shrugging took a seat on Draco's lap. She let her head fall back a bit and nuzzled his neck.

"Yeah," said Neville, a little alarmed, "talk about weird family relations."

Seamus nodded, still staring at the cousins as they came to they're table and took a seat with Harry, Hermoine, Ron, Ginny and a few other Gryffindors.


	13. Chapter 13

You wandered back to Draco, a picture of Seamus still floating in your mind. You'd have to research up on him. As you came to Draco's table you noticed a few people get up and leave.

"What was all that about?" you asked Draco.

"I just didn't want them around," he replied looking at you with his elbow propped up on the table and his head in his hand.

"Aww… I want to see what your friends are like," you said.

"They weren't my friends," Draco laughed, "so you don't have to worry."

You raised your eyebrows a bit and shrugged and then grabbed for a chair. But as soon as you could grab hold of it… it disappeared. The same thing happened after five attempts at grabbing five different chairs and you gave Draco a look of disapproval.

"Stop it," you whined.

"Stop what?" he asked, dully.

You grabbed for another chair and when it disappeared you let out a laugh.

"Okay," you said, "I give."

"Don't you mean," Draco began, "what was it? Uncle?"

"Yes," you said, laughing some more, "Uncle. Uncle, Uncle, Uncle."

"Fine," he said, as the chairs appeared again, "you lose."

You rolled your eyes and went for a chair again only to have it disappear again.

"I said uncle," you complained, "now how am I supposed to sit without a chair?"

"You're never creative enough," said Draco, sitting up and gesturing to his lap.

You smiled, "I'm no lightweight. If I squish you it's your own fault."

Draco gave you a look that totally said, "bring it on," and you did as you shrugged and took a seat on his lap.

"I want a pony and a…" you said, imitating a little child on Santa's lap. Draco seemed to understand and you both had a bit of a laugh. You let your head roll back and fall between his neck and his shoulder. "And a Malfoy," you said whispering in his ear.

He straightened up even more after that and then said, "Let's go for a walk. Everyone in here is giving us weird looks."

As you both stood up he grabbed your hand and you in turn took his. As you walked out of the great hall you noticed everyone was looking at you both and whispering quite a bit. You remember how Neville had asked if the two of you really were cousins and how Professor Dumbledore has said he knew you were both cousins from Draco's dad.

When you were a ways away from the great hall you confessed this information to Draco. Or you tried.

"Ooo… the reason they were looking at us like that was because they think or know--" you were interrupted by Draco who immediately began to snog you up against a wall.

You eyes were wide a moment and then you internally shrugged and decided you could always tell him later.

You let the kiss devour you as melted into it and closed your eyes but then you decided to make it more interesting you would take charge and you turned Draco so that he was against the wall.

"What is it with you and fighting me?" he asked.

"I could ask you the same thing. Did you ever just think I'd like to get you on your back?"

And then you both went back into feverishly snogging. He pulled you into him sharply and tightly and he turned you over so that your back was against the wall. You decided there was no point in arguing and let him win as you ran your hands through his bright blonde hair.

However the two of you were interrupted by someone loudly clearing their throat and as you both stopped kissing a moment and turned to look at this person, rather annoyed, your faces pressed together. However as soon as you saw it was you immediately parted and felt both like laughing and running away. Professor Snape looked at the both of you and shook his head as he made his way between the two of you whilst Draco backed up so he could pass.

Draco looked like he was thinking about something very intently after you'd stopped laughing and gotten back to him.

"What is it?" you asked abruptly.

Draco still looked off.

"Tell me," you said.

After awhile of him not answering you got rather annoyed.

"You never tell me anything," you muttered, still looking at him. You waited a moment and then decided to try and find your way back to the great hall.

Draco rushed after you, "you'll get lost."

"No, I won't," you replied stubbornly, "I'm not as stupid as I look."

"It's my parents," he said finally, stopping in the corridor.

"What?" you asked.

"Snape knows my parents if he tells them what we're doing… my dad won't like it and my mother will be heartbroken."

You swallowed a laugh. "Why?"

"You're a muggle, Amanda," he stated blankly. Then he went and quick save with, "They think you are."

You had been in situations like this one before. You were too different to be together. But this was different this was like Romeo and Juliet. It felt like you were destined. But you understood. "So do you want me to not talk to you or something?" you asked.

"No," he said, "Well… yes. But we can still do this – just we'll have to be careful and I'll have to tell my parents before Snape does."

"About us?" you asked, eyes shining.

"No," he replied, "don't be stupid. About how I was snogging with some pure-blood girl."

"Right," you said, trying to understand.

If only Draco was more understanding. You spent the rest of the afternoon avoiding the discussion of the two of you and studying in the library. Draco tried to teach you all her knew and after about five hours of moderate success the two of you headed to the great hall for dinner. You suggested that the two of you go and join Neville, Seamus and whoever else they were sitting with but Draco would rather eat with his not friends and so you both headed to his table where his… cronies seemed to laugh at anything he said and anything you said. Except for a couple of the girls who just scowled at what you said and drenched Draco in compliments. No wonder he's so arrogant, you thought. After a week with these mindless drones you would probably be majorly vain as well. When the two of you were finished dinner. (It took you a little longer because you kept freaking out at the fact the food was endless and the food disappeared and then reappeared with something new!) You both walked up to the dorms together. You found some clothes waiting for you but desperately wanted to have a shower.

"Please," you pleaded, "Please! My legs are like so hairy. Feel them!"

Draco inched away from you, "What? They look fine to me." He said peering over at them from a chair. He was in his regular pyjamas but all your clothes were at Draco's so all you had were some new robe and a couple outfits. You had to wear some of Draco's stuff to bed, which is what you were dressed in now: a pair of his boxers and a really baggy t-shirt.

"Well, feel them! Then you'll disagree," you argued.

He began to ignore you.

"Fine," you said after a moment, "I'll just go by myself and** get lost**."

"I'm coming," he said groaning.

"Good. So where are the showers around here?"

"Well you can use the prefect's bathroom if you want. I have access to that one. There isn't a shower but there's a bath," he said.

"I don't really like baths," you began.

"Too bad," he said.

You gathered up your bath stuff and wandered out with him down a few corridors and up a few flights of stairs, around a few corners and through a few paintings and then finally you were in a small hallway that led only to one room, the prefect's bathroom.

"You're going to wait for me. Right?" you asked, a little nervous.

"Yes," he said, "Hurry up. If you take too long I'll come in and drag you out."

You swung open the door and left the drowsy Draco behind entering a world of bubbles and warm water. The bathroom was more so a work of art and you felt bad sitting in the tub. As though you were ruining a perfectly good painting. However after a little while you began to relax and even begun to sing a bit of Aerosmith. _I could spend my life in the sweet surrender. I could stay lost in this moment forever. Oh every moment spent with you is a moment I treasure. Don't wanna close my eyes. I don't wanna fall asleep because I miss you, baby, and I don't miss a thing. 'Cause even when I dream of you the sweetest dream will never do. I still miss you, baby, and I don't want to miss a thing. _When you were done your bath and felt fresh and squeaky clean you wrapped a towel around and trusting that Draco wouldn't tug the towel off grabbed your stuff and headed out of the bathroom.

Draco was slumped up against the wall his eyes closed and sleeping. You wondered a bit what he was dreaming about. Maybe, a pureblood witch. You leant over him and gave him a gentle kiss to wake him up. He let out a bit of a yawn and stretched as you shoved your stuff into his hands so you could keep your towel up.

"C'mon, sleepy head," you said to him as he stood up and held your stuff to tired to complain.

The one thing he did say was: "Are you… wearing a towel?"

"Yes," you replied, "It's yours by the way."

"You took my towel," he said smirking.

"Well I couldn't use mine. It's at… wherever we were before," you replied.

"Right," he said, staring at you.

"Stop looking at me," you complained.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Stop looking," you said.

"If I did that I'd have to close my eyes."

"Well then close your eyes," you protested.

He did so and pretended to fall onto you.

"Aiieee!" you said trying to hold him up and your towel.

He laughed and stood up, continuing to walk down the hall.

"How tall are you?" you asked.

"What?"

"How tall are you?"

"Uhmm… what?"

"I'm 5"5. You must be… 6"1. Hmm…"

Draco let out another yawn and continued to walk down as you pondered about height. Finally the two of you reached the dorms and slipped in. You got back into Draco's borrowed pyjamas and tied up your hair so it wouldn't be frizzy in the morning. Draco was waiting for you when you go out of the girls' dormitory and went to get your bathroom stuff that was now spread out on an armchair.

After you gathered your stuff up you went over to Draco and asked, "May I help you?"

He looked at you and smirked, "Well, you could come to bed," he replied.

"Excuse me?" you asked.

"Just tonight," he said.

"No," you replied, laughing and about to head back into the girls' dorm.

"I won't be able to sleep without you," he said.

"What?" you asked.

"If you must know, I've been having bad dreams lately."

You thought about the dream you'd had last night and shuddered at the thought of the strange figure.

"Me too," you admitted, "Alright. I guess it couldn't hurt. Give me a minute." After you'd finished stuffing your things back where they were supposed to be stuffed you went back to Draco with two things to say. "I've two more things to say," you said, " before we retire."

"Whatever," he said.

"Okay, number 1: Won't we get in trouble for doing this?"

"Amanda, I'm a bloody prefect. Now can we, please, go to sleep?"

"Alright. That wasn't really an answer but whatever. Number 2: Everyone was staring at us earlier because they think were cousins. So we've go to act –uh- cousinly more."

"Alright, alright," he said totally dismissing your comment and dragging you off to bed with him.

You both lay down in bed and as soon as he closed his eyes you thought of one more thing to ask. "Draco?" you said, nudging him.

"What?" he asked obviously annoyed.

"Nevermind," you said.

"Not nevermind. You don't deny me sleep for nevermind."

"Okay…" you began, "would you rather have never met me and gone with some pureblood today?"

Silence. And more silence. And then snoring noises.

"Draco!" you whispered hoarsely and gave him a playful punch, "I'm serious."

"Alright," he said. And then you felt him shift in the bed and his arms wrap tightly around you. There was a pause before you heard him whisper softly into your ear, singing in a voice you'd never heard him use before. It was soft and sombre and gentle but above all passionate: "Every moment spent with you is a moment I treasure. Don't wanna close my eyes. Don't wanna fall asleep because I miss you, baby, and I don't wanna miss a thing. Even when I dream of you the sweetest dream will never do because I miss you, baby, and I don't want to miss a thing."

Though you were slightly ticked that he had been listening to you while you were in the bath you didn't want to spoil the moment and you so you let him sing to you. And you know for certain that one of you had calm dreams.


	14. Chapter 14

"Morning," said a very familiar voice.

"That's morning princess to you," you corrected with your eyes closed.

You heard Draco chuckle, "Morning, princess," he repeated.

"Morning, Draco," you replied as you opened your eyes and smiled.

You were still in the boys' dormitory and as a few of the boys walked past you they looked different: some were puzzled, some were excited and some surprised. You then remembered that you two were supposed to be cousins. This couldn't look a bit good.

"And why don't I get a title?" Draco asked, sitting up and looking down at you.

"Well you're not as important as me," you replied as you now sat up and gave your shoulders a royal shrug.

Draco sent you a smirk and you sent him a smirk back. Then he looked out at the crowd of boys that was now passing both of you by.

"We better get ready," Draco said, and then turning his attention back to you asked, "What's your first class?"

"Uhm--" you began, attempting to remember that little piece of paper that was your timetable, "Was it Herbology? No… it was –uh- Muggle Studies. Yeah. I'm pretty sure that was it. What's yours?"

"Not Muggle Studies," replied Draco in disgust.

"What's wrong with that class?"

"Nothing. If you actually like muggles."

You cleared your throat.

"Oh right," he said as he begun to make his bed.

You waited for an apology but when one never came you just said: "I'll meet you in the Great Hall for lunch."

"You don't know how to get there or to your first class for that matter. Come to the common room in five minutes and we can go to the Great Hall for breakfast and then-" Draco attempted to command.

"I'm not two, you know. I can find my way around. I don't need you to baby-sit me all the time."

"No, just most of the time."

"How about not at all," you said as you turned to storm out. You felt Draco grab your arm.  
"Where do you think you're going?" he asked.

"Somewhere away from you," you turned and stated, "Now let go of me."

Draco didn't let go, "I said common room in five minutes."

"Fuck you," you replied as you pried him off you and pushed him back.

As you stormed out of the dormitory you realized you were wearing a pair of his nightclothes, which only made you angrier.

You took your time getting ready and slipping on your pumps and grabbing the books that had also been sent to you along with your timetable, walked quietly out of the girls' dormitory and peered into the common room. No Draco. You safely made your way through the common room avoiding the cold stares of Draco's groupies, who had obviously heard Draco complaining about you.

As soon as you were out of the common room you felt a tear come to your eye but you quickly wiped it away. You really wanted to go home as you paced up and down corridors looking for your first class that did happen to be Muggle Studies. Finally you slumped down against the wall of one of the many halls of the school and felt yourself flooding with emotion. You wanted to pound the wall in frustration and tremble to death with tears. You decided to do a bit of both. As your emotions took over you began to furiously beat at the wall until you felt the tears wash over you and you stopped to rest your head there and cry. You felt the cold icy glares of everyone on you but you couldn't stop the tears from overflowing and sliding down your face. You closed your eyes and tried to breath as someone tapped you on the back.

"What do you want?" you asked sourly as you turned around to see a girl with very bushy brown hair in a robe with the emblem of Gryffindor emblazoned on it.

She looked a little standoffish but finally she asked, "Are you alright?"

"Oh yeah," you replied, your voice heavy with sarcasm, "I'm just peachy."

"What happened?" she asked, pulling out her wand, pointing it at her pocket and muttering something in Latin.

"What happened? What happened! I'll tell you what happened he wants to boss me around but no more. No way! But now I'm lost. I'm so stubborn. I should've…" you began saying, talking more to yourself than the girl, but then you began to blubber and your bottom lip quivered and you finally burst out into tears yet again.

"Here," she said, taking a tissue out of her pocket and handing it to you, "now who was bossing you around?"

"Th-thi-this guy," you said dabbing the tears away from your face only as more came to take their places.

"Oh," she said, "I know what that's like. You see fourth year I went out with this boy and well my friend… Wait. What class are you looking for?"

"Muggle Studies," you said, letting out a large sigh and thereby ending your frantic crying. "Is my face red?"

The girl peered at you. "A little," she answered as she grimaced. You were sure your face was probably red and puffy as it always was after a good cry. She was obviously lying but you'd rather have her lie with "a little" than tell the truth with a "hell yes" so you didn't complain. "Let's see," she continued, "I don't have Muggle Studies now and neither does Harry… but Ron! Ron has Muggle Studies. His dad is making him take it over the summer, you see, because well his father works in the Muggle department of things and… I'm Hermoine, by the way, Hermoine Granger," Hermoine Granger concluded.

"Oh," you said still digesting all the information Hermoine had confessed, "I'm –uh- Amanda McKnight. It's nice to meet you."

Hermoine gave you a bright smile and then looked down the corridor, "There's Ron and Harry now," she said to you before yelling down the hall at them, "Ron! Ron! Harry!"

They both turned around. The boy you assumed was Ron looked first he had bright red hair and some freckles on his face. He sort of reminded you a very large tomato. Then there was Harry who didn't look like a vegetable at all but more like an owl. He had dark brown hair a pair of round glasses on. You also noticed, just visible, was a zigzag shaped scar on his forehead. Both boys were clad in the same uniform as Hermoine and yourself. They wore a long black robe but it shared the same Gryffindor emblem whereas, you looked down at yours, was a green one that read Slytherin.

Hermoine grabbed your arm and dragged you along with her as she dashed towards the two guys. "This is Amanda," she said, introducing you.

You gave them a bit of a wave.

Hermoine continued, "Ron, you have Muggle Studies next right?"

"Well yeah," replied Ron, looking from you to Hermoine, "Why? What do you want me to do now?"

"Amanda has Muggle Studies too but she doesn't know where the class is. Could you take her there?" Hermoine asked.

"Actually," said Ron, "I was thinking of grabbing something to eat before…"

"You just ate, Ron!" Hermoine complained.

"I did not. That was half an hour ago because you dragged us all the way to the library where we only got separated. Besides I only had three pieces of toast, four scones and _one_ stack of pancakes. That isn't breakfast," Ron whined.

You looked at Harry, who you found was looking at you, and while the two argued Harry asked, "Are you okay? Your face is all red."

You dashed to cover your face with your hands, "Oh, is it?" you said, not wanting to admit you'd just been crying all over the hallway.

"Yeah," he said, "it is."

You just sort of gave him a smile and nod.

Harry then gestured to Ron and Hermoine whose hands were now flailing about everywhere as though they were trying to take flight. "I expect they'll be done soon," he said, "I can always tell because when Hermoine does that thing with her eyebrows you can tell she's just about to win."

You observed the two of them arguing and sure enough they did stop.

"… eat at lunch," Hermione finished and then looked to you, "Ron's going to take you so we'll see you both at lunch. Right?"

"Yeah. Sure," you replied.

"Oh but before you go, Amanda," Hermoine said as Ron began to shuffle off hopefully in the direction of your class, "What's your timetable?"

"Uhm," you said withdrawing your schedule from your large armfuls of books, "Muggle Studies, Potions, Divinity and Herbology."

"Well I'll be seeing you in Divinity," she said, "I don't like how the houses get split up for classes during the summer but I guess that's just they way things are."

You were about ask Hermoine what on earth Divinity was when she just shrugged and gave you a wave goodbye and then strode off with Harry.

You and Ron walked mainly in silence until you got to the classroom. There were only about a handful of people in your class. You only recognized two of the people out of the ten or so that were there however. There was Ron, of course, who you had just met and seemed very reluctant to talk to you and there was Seamus Finnigan the boy you had met yesterday and who was a friend of Neville's. It appeared that Ron and Seamus also knew each other because they greeted one another and took a seat beside each other.

"Did she come with you?" you heard Seamus whisper to Ron.

"Yeah," said Ron, "her name's Amanda, I think. Hermoine asked me to take her with me."

"Oh Hermoine asked you. Did she?" replied Seamus, elbowing Ron playfully.

You stood in the room looking for a place to sit. Finally you decided on the front since no one else was sitting there but when you sat down you felt something strike the back of your head. You turned looked around for whatever had hit you and saw a ball of paper. Invoked by curiosity you opened it to see if anything was written on it. The paper read: "DO YOU WANNA SIT OVER HERE?" You looked behind you to see who had thrown the note and saw Seamus give you a wave. He and Ron were at the back of the class and you went to join them.

Taking your seat you grinned at the two boys. Seamus smiled back at you and Ron gave you what could be classified as a smile but then he looked off nervously.

"So what brings a Slytherin to Muggle Studies?" Seamus asked.

"Huh?" you replied, "Oh right," you said remembering the crest on your robe, "Well it –uh- sounded easy."

"Why? Do you know any muggles? I thought all Slytherins were pure-bloods," Seamus replied.

Ron was now looking at you and listening in on the conversations.

"Malfoy would like it that way," Ron said, "Malfoy would like it if ONLY pure-bloods went to this school. What a huge git he is."

You wanted to agree with Ron but you just found yourself saying, "If you mean Draco, he's my cousin."

"I feel sorry for you," Ron said and stifled a laugh.

Now you felt yourself agreeing, "Yeah he's an arrogant jerk."

"You didn't seem to think that yesterday," Seamus began but a teacher had apparently joined the classroom and began to take over.

"Today," began the teacher, "we will be talking about something muggles call technicolorlgy."

You raised your hand.

"Yes, in the back," the teacher said.

"Do you mean technology?" you asked.

"Yes," the teacher replied, "Technology. Now muggles have all sorts of…"

This class was basically filled with false accusations of what technology is and what sort of things you used that could be classified as technology. The entire lesson was boring and repetitive. You were forced to take a few notes on what the teacher thought technology was but for the most part you and Seamus and Ron passed notes throughout the class. Basically the notes were about how boring the class was and stuff that made fun of the teacher. Finally when class was over Ron began to dash out of the room and you and Seamus were left to exit. You picked up your books and quill and headed for the door whilst taking to Seamus about the boring lecture you had received.

"… I just can't believe he thought that a notebook was something you write in and not a portable computer. It was so funny when he actually handed one around. I almost burst out into laughter," you declared.

"I know and when on about pencil sharpeners and then brought one out that wasn't even electric," Seamus added.

"Well at least he got the CD player thing right," you said shrugging and walking through the doorway.

"So what do you have next?" Seamus asked.

"Uhm – potions. That's in the dungeons right?" you asked, shivering a bit.

"Yeah," Seamus replied.

You began to try and remember where the dungeons were. You had to get to the staircase so you could go downstairs but was that down the hall and to your right or…

"Do you know how to get to the dungeons?" he asked.

"I'm almost pretty sure it was down there and then…" you began

"No," said Seamus, "it's actually the other way." Here Seamus moved your hand so it was pointing down the other side of the hallway.

"Right," you said, "I knew that."

"Come on. I'll walk you. Okay?"

"Yeah," you replied and walked alongside Seamus as you headed for the dungeons.

"So you and Draco are cousins then?" Seamus said.

"Yeah. We're cousins."

"So yesterday with the chair… that was just a family type thing?"

"Uhm – yeah," you replied a little nervous.

"Yeah," Seamus said after a moment of silence.

Some more silence followed.

"So do you have a –uh- boy back home?" he asked, "If you don't mind me asking that is."

"No, not at all. And no I don't."

"Why not?" he asked, as though you knew why.

"I dunno. Don't really have time for dating. School keeps me pretty busy. I mean – us. Everyone," you stated, "Don't you agree?"

"Yeah. I guess I can see that," he said nodding, "But you don't even have time for anyone now?"

"W-well. I actually did like this one guy," you began, remembering John, "but well he went away and Draco didn't really like him and being my cousin and all he was very protective. And now I'm here."

"So you wouldn't date anyone now then?" he asked.

"Well I dunno about... I mean, I guess I could if I wanted to."

"But… you don't want to?" Seamus asked, somewhat confused.

"It's – it's just. There's this guy now that I like but… well it's not really working out right now but you know how it is."

"No, I don't know how it is," Seamus replied, "I haven't really ever dated a girl before."

"Have you dated a boy before?" you asked, laughing off the nerves.

Seamus in turned laughed, "Well, no."

"Good," you said, "I honestly do not recommend it."

"Why not?" Seamus would've said if someone hadn't interrupted your conversation.

"What do we have here?" an annoying high-pitched voice chimed in. It was one of Draco's groupies, "First Draco and now Finnigan?"

"We're just talking," you interjected.

"Well I still don't think Draco will like you talking to-" the girl began.

"Shouldn't you be somewhere with Malfoy, Parkinson?" Finnigan – I mean – Seamus said.

"I should but he won't talk with me unless the Boy Snatcher here comes along," said Parkinson.

"What does he want to talk to me for?" you asked.

"That's what I keep wondering," replied Parkinson, "Now c'mon."

You looked a bit upset about Draco sending people to drag you to him and Seamus picked up on it.

"Tell Malfoy to come and get her himself," Seamus said.

Parkinson scowled, "C'mon, McKnight, move it."

"No," you said, agreeing with Seamus, "you heard Seamus, he can come and get me himself."

Finally Parkinson shrugged and went off.

"Thanks," you said to Seamus.

"It was nothing," Seamus replied, shrugging.

"Well it was something to me," you said.

You realized now that the two of you had come to a stop and were in front of the Dungeon classroom. "I better go," you stated and Seamus nodded. You walked a few steps then turned around and saw he was still standing there just watching you enter the classroom. You gave him one more smile and thought that maybe you would date over this summer.

You entered the dark, dank classroom and took a seat in the back. Professor Snape kind of creeped you out and he wasn't very nice to look at either. You took out your assumed potions book and your quill and ink and got ready for class.

Just as you were thinking how much you'd much rather be taking notes with your laptop or a pen or pencil someone came and sat next you.

Draco took a seat beside you and started the conversation with: "You blew me off for Finnigan."

"I didn't blow you off," you replied, "you could've came and talked to me instead of sending your groupie Ms Parkinson to come and retrieve me."

"Pansy offered to go and get you," Draco said and was about to go on but shut his mouth for a moment to think. "What was all that 'fuck you' about this morning?"

"As if you didn't know," you scolded and shook your head.

Draco was about to answer the remark but Professor Snape had begun a lecture on a potion. He described what it did and how there was one ingredient that normally did one thing but in this case would be used for another. On and on he went and finally you and Draco had to make the potion… together.

Chapter 15 

Draco ran after Amanda as class ended. Their potion was a total disaster. When Draco told Amanda not to put the leavy-things since the potion was only purple she ignored him and added them when he wasn't watching. This caused the potion to, quite literally, blow up in their faces. Luckily they weren't harmed because Draco had sliced up some sort of root improperly which Amanda had commented on. The fact that the root was not chopped up fine enough was also blamed on Amanda by Professor Snape. This made Amanda looked like a rather atrocious student in Snape's eyes although, frankly, his mind wasn't light on Draco either. The both of them had just slipped past a detention and instead Snape had decided to lecture the class on the variety of root chopping and variety of roots.

However now class was over and as Amanda continued to walk past Draco and down the hall.

Draco yelled after her, "Yeah. That's it! Run to Finnigan!"

Amanda continued to walk down the hall but merely picked up the pace and turned the corner.

As Amanda escaped Draco's taunting words Crabbe, Goyle, Blaise and Pansy all emerged from the classroom. "Don't waste your breath, Draco," Pansy said, "I can't believe she's your cousin. You don't share any sort of resemblance. You have class and poise and she's just… a bitch. Almost muggle scum." Pansy said all this soothingly as though Draco were chasing after Amanda with apologies and sonnets but still Amanda had stormed off, nose up-turned.

Draco turned to face the crowd and tried to smile. She _I was /I _muggle scum. "You're right," he begun as he slung an arm around Pansy and began walking down the hall with the whole group revolving around him. "I told my father I didn't want her here. I practically hate her. It's just, you know, we're cousins. I can't have her ruining my reputation with Finnigan. And let's face it Finnigan has always been out to get my – cousins. That bogus Potter's probably in on it too."

"Behind it," declared Blaise.

"Probably," grunted Draco.

"Well at least you've still got me to take care of Draco and to take care of you, of course. I would never ruin the Malfoy name," said Pansy.

Draco smirked at the fact that Pansy probably wouldn't do any good to his family name either. He sniggered to himself. Of course in Amanda's case… if she was going to mess around with Potter or even Finnigan he sure would have the option of revenge.

You turned a couple corners, dashing down halls and then stopped to breath. You sucked in air deeply looking around the halls for anyone you knew. Not wanting to look stupid standing there on your own and not wanting Draco to come up and poke fun at you some more. That's what he was doing, wasn't it? Just poking fun at you? Ridiculing you and for what? You didn't understand. Maybe you didn't want to. You double over and put your weight on your knees as you stared down at the floor. What was it that kept you and Draco apart? Other than the fact he was a jerk and you couldn't stand to be near him for more than five minutes. Okay, that was lie. You did wish you weren't fighting and all you-

"Amanda? Are you all right? You look like your going to be sick," came the words of a worried Seamus.

"I'm fine," you said, look up at him and standing up straight, "Potions just makes my head feel a little woozy." You spun your finger around for emphasis.

"Really? I thought it might've been Snape. He always makes me feel a little more than queasy."

You laughed, "I could understand that."

"Are you going to the Great Hall for lunch?" he asked after a moment.

"I dunno. Is that where I'm supposed to go?"

"Well we can go wherever you want. I mean – you can go wherever you want," he replied.

"Oh," you said. You thought to yourself for a moment. What to do? "Lunch sounds good. I'm not hungry now but if I don't eat I now I'll just get hungry in my next class."

"Would you like me to walk you there?" Seamus asked extending his hand.

"I would love for you to walk me there," you replied as you saw Draco turn the corner with that Parkinson girl all over him. You took Seamus' hand and let him slip his arm around your shoulder only so you could move it down to your waist.

Draco only pulled Parkinson more into him but you just smiled and looked to Seamus who seemed to be cruising down the hall as though he had just won the Nobel Prize. "Seamus," you said between clenched teeth, "could you kiss me? I need to prove something to Mr Malfoy over there."

Seamus seemed to get message and turned to look at Draco who glared back at him. "I don't know about this, Amanda," he replied as he turned back to you.

"Please," you replied, "I'll owe you."

Here he smiled at you and shrugged, "alright." And then he leaned in and kissed you. It was so different from Draco's way. There was no struggle for power there just a deep simplicity that shook your whole body as you let yourself fall into Seamus' kiss, who in turn seemed to be falling for you. You both began to forget where you were and what you why you were kissing one another in the first place as his hands slid down to your hips and your slide up his back a bit. The only thing that seemed to revive the both of you was the slight commotion you both heard in the halls.

At the sound of all the ooo's you pulled away, laughing and avoiding his eyes. You weren't embarrassed per say but more so shocked that he was such a good kisser. It wasn't that Draco was a bad kisser but… you didn't need him anyway. Why were you thinking about him?

Seamus grabbed your hand and you peeked over his shoulder to see Draco scowl and look at Pansy and grab her with some strong force. He flung her around like a doll as his greedy mouth bent to meet hers. You felt like scowling now but didn't have the time as Seamus pulled you along with him down the hall that began again to vibrate with ooo's.

"That was nice," Seamus said, looking down at you.

You laughed a bit. "You sound as though it was your first time kissing a girl," you said.

Seamus looked a little embarrassed, "Well… no."

"Oh mon Dieu! It was your first. Wasn't it?" you were shocked, "Wow."

Seamus looked embarrassed and a bit puzzled.

"I don't mean you're any less of a "man" or anything," you immediately said, "It's just… Why, Sir, you kiss by the book. You're a natural. I mean really – wow."

"Thanks?" he replied.

"You're welcome."

"Could we-? Could I-?" he started to say.

You waited.

"Never mind."

"No. What?" you asked.

"Do you think we could do that again sometime?" he asked.

You raised an eyebrow, "Sure. Like when?"

"Now?" he asked.

You laughed. "Well I guess – for a minute but-"

He kissed you again and totally swept you off your feet with his skills. You felt yourself float away in Seamus' arms. When it ended again only because you both knew you should hurry for lunch before it was over Seamus stopped you before you could look away and pretend nothing had ever happened.

"Amanda," he said.

You looked down a bit and glanced up, "Yes."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're beautiful?"

"Yes," you replied still only glancing up, "But I don't really understand what it is. How can you measure beauty?"

"I don't know how to measure it but when I'm with you I know what it is. I know I just met you yesterday but I just wanted you to know that you're beautiful. Look at me."

You looked up and smiled at him. "Well thank-you," you replied, "and I would love to snog you, Seamus, but I don't know if I want a relationship right now."

"I understand," he said nodding and not looking at all disappointed, "just keep in mind that you and I have a connection and we will be together before the summer is out."

You entered the Great Hall together. However you and Seamus were not wrapped around one another as you so often were with Malfoy, whom you saw was not at the Slytherin table or anywhere else in the Great Hall for that matter. You followed Seamus who lead you to the Gryffindor table which was the same as the Slytherin table except the people who were sitting around it were different. You saw Ron, Hermoine, Harry, Neville and a handful of other Gryffindors you'd never met before. You took a seat beside Neville and across from Hermoine. Seamus joined the table by sitting beside you.

"Hi, Amanda," greeted Hermoine, "How was your first class?"

You looked from Ron to Seamus who both looked at you in turn, "It was… the exact opposite of interesting."

"Yes," she said, "Well I'm sure you wouldn't find muggles at all interesting and actually I don't either. I mean to say because I am half one."

"Really?" you asked, rather interested to know someone else here could semi understand what was going on with you.

However Hermoine didn't take it quite like that. "Yes," she replied taking the question rather offensively.

You furrowed your eyebrows and sort of shrugged this answer off as you reached for some food. Ron was very helpful in the food department. He knew all the really good stuff from just the plain good stuff and you helped yourself to tons of food as the crowd went on talking about teachers and classes you knew nothing about until they turned their attention directly to you.

"So," Ron began as he finally pushed his plate away after finishing his fifth helping of lunch, "are you from the North America's then?"

"Uhm – yeah," you replied, taking an ice cream from a really nice looking cone holder, "I'm actually the most Northern part of North America which would be Canada."

"And how are you related to Malfoy?" Harry asked.

"We're cousins," you replied feeling a little awkward.

You saw Hermoine getting ready to ask a question and quickly decided to explain.

"You see," you said, "we're really second cousins. You see his dad's brother actually had kids really young and… this one is like thirty and he is my father, the one that's thirty."

"So how did your Dad end up in Canada?" asked Neville.

"A job opportunity came up when he was… in his twenties at a – a… communication booth thing," you said uncertainly, "like crystal balls and stuff."

Everyone gave you a very strange look.

"Do you mean that he works in an owlrey?" Ron asked.

"Yeah," you said and continued to watch everyone gawk at you for a moment and then they suddenly seemed to digest the information.

"Sounds kind of cool," Seamus remarked and then everyone began to agree.

"What's the Canadian school for magic like?" a girl with red hair asked and by the looks of her you assumed she was related to Ron.

"Well-" you began but were interrupted before you could finish your lie.

"I hate to… ruin the party," began Professor Snape from behind you, "but I suggest that you all get to your classes immediately after all we wouldn't want any of you slackers failing again now. Would we?"

You had never thought you would be happy to hear Professor Snape's cold voice until that moment.

You trotted alongside Hermoine as you both walked off to Divinity together. Whatever that was.

"Hermoine," you began, "what exactly is Divinity?"

"You mean Divination?" asked Hermoine.

"No. It says "Divinity" on my timetable," you said, holding it up to show Hermoine.

"Hmmm…" she said, "must be some sort of typo. Well, Divination is basically a class where you learn prediction using certain instruments such as the stars and plants and even certain herbs. You look within other objects to look within yourself to find an answer."

"Right."

"It'll seem more clear when you get through your first lesson. The Canadian school must be a lot different."

"Oh," you said, "you can trust me when I say it is."

There was a pause here where you walked through crowds and such and then Hermoine asked a question, "Are you really related to Draco? Because I'm sorry but frankly I can't believe it."

You looked at her for a moment and then sighed and decided you may as well confess, "No. His dad made that up so that I would be put into the same house for my stay. I think."

"So how do you know the Malfoy's then?" Hermoine asked.

"Well Draco and I are sort of, I think, dating. Maybe."

Hermoine thought for a moment and nodded, "I could see that. But why on earth are you dating him?"

"Well like I said I don't really know if we are – but he's really just this great, fun, hot guy and he really is nice in his own way. I mean he is mainly a vain jerk but he really has his moments."

Hermoine looked at you puzzled, "I don't think I quite understand why anyone would ever date or want to date that idiot but I sort of know what you're saying about him having his moments. I know someone who's like that."

"Really who? Anyone I know?"

Hermoine flushed, "Uhm – no. No, no, no."

You coughed, "liar".

The both of you giggled like little schoolgirls as you arrived at the class. Divination was a most interesting class and even though it was sometimes hard to understand you thought it was your favourite. Professor Trelawny was the most interesting teacher there. She always said things that were unexpected even if her class was the hardest it was the most fun. You thought she might secretly know you didn't belong there because every once in awhile she would point at you and smile when calling on someone else for an answer. In Divination today you looked at crystal ball readings and the alignment of planets. Hermoine seemed to know everything about everything. She claimed she knew all the stuff about aligning planets from last year in Astronomy. Finally class was over and having Hermoine volunteer to drop you off at Herbology you had sometime to ask her questions.

"So how could **b you /b **have possibly failed Divination?" you asked.

"Oh," she replied, "I didn't, but I want to get as much in as I can. I had to drag Ron to come back to school with me. With Harry it was easy, he'd much rather spend his time here than with the Dursleys."

"Who're the Dursleys?" you asked.

"The Dursleys are his Aunt, Uncle and Cousin. They're the most muggle family I've ever heard off. Even my family isn't that… regulatory."

You nodded. "The more I hear about Harry the less I like it. He doesn't to seem to have a very good life and he doesn't really have a good attitude toward any of it either, does he?"

"No, he hasn't had good life but I think he handles it quite well actually."

You wondered on this as you and Hermoine walked to Herbology. Apparently Hermoine had a freebie next so she didn't mind walking you at all. She assumed you had class with Neville and before she left you she said one thing.

"Watch out for upcoming holidays. Dumbledore loves to compress all the years' holidays into the summer and he warns us about two hours in advance. I heard another one is coming up soon. Maybe later today." Before you could question Hermoine any longer she shrugged and ran off.

You wondered a bit where she could be off to so fast as you dashed into the class yourself.

Neville was in Herbology and both paired up to deal with a seemingly poisonous plant. If it weren't for Neville you would've probably had to be carried off on a stretcher.

"You're really good at this," you commented, as he massaged the stem of the plan and rubbed one of its leaves to extract the poison from the top of rather ugly looking flower.

"Nah. I'm – alright, I guess," he said, blushing again.

You smiled at him. "I think it's amazing what you do in here."

"Cup," he said gesturing to the cup beside you with his dragon scale gloves.

You picked the cup up and handed to him and watched him gather every last drop of the precious concoction with the cup. He smiled when he was finished at the flower seemed to shrivel a moment and then turned a bright violet colour and bloomed into a bold blue flower that seemed to shine in the light that came in from the walls of the green house.

"Nicely done, Mr Longbottom and Ms McKnight," said Professor Sprout as she came around, "Everyone gather here. See how Mr Longbottom and Ms McKnight have correctly…"

Professor Sprout was kind lady who you thought would be very much like Mother Nature if there were one. Perhaps she was Mother Nature. She really seemed to like Neville and even though she obviously saw you knew nothing about plants and were following whatever Neville said she was nice enough to you as well. Frankly most teachers had liked you because of your maturity. Okay, so you didn't think you were mature but sometimes you could see yourself as leaning in that direction like when you were taking care of your sisters or at your job or staying after school to do a group project. Or was that just doing what you had to do.

After Herbology you all piled out to head to the Great Hall for dinner but Neville stopped you before you could rush off.

"I'm staying to work on something for extra-credit… I mean that's what all of this is but – Seamus wanted me to ask you something," he said, "Now what was it again?" He stood for a moment, thinking. "Uhm… Oh! He wanted me to ask you if you'd meet him near the girls' bathroom on the third floor."

"When?" you asked.

"Oh," he began, "Uhm – before breakfast. I think. Yeah."

You rolled your eyes and smiled, "Tell him, sure. And thanks for the message, Neville. Good luck with your extra-credit thing. Not that you need it, of course."

"Thanks," he replied.

You entered the great hall and sat at Gryffindor table with your new friends, not even bothering to look over at the Slytherin table. At least you would've if it weren't for the fact that as soon as you headed for the table you were directed to the Slytherin's by Professor Snape. You shuffled to a spot where no one was sitting and when you went to look around the only thing you saw was Draco with his arm slinked around Parkinson.

Finally his eyes caught yours. You immediately averted your attention from him to the food. You weren't going to give him the satisfaction of thinking he'd won. You didn't feel much like eating so you grabbed a drink. Then you began to think on tomorrow morning and Seamus.

Later in the Slytherin common room you pranced around in your borrowed pyjamas.

You stared at the empty fireplace. Then went to study a jar on the mantle filled with a clear almost blue substance. You took the jar and went to open it, captured in your own curiosity.

"Flobberworm mucus," said a voice from behind you.

You turned around, jar still in hand, to see Draco and his leech, Parkinson. He had his arms around her again as she gave you a bragging smile.

You gave a Draco a bit of "can't we stop this" look but looked away as you felt your lip begin to quiver with remorse.

"Jealous?" asked Parkinson, looking up at Draco as they both shared a smile. Obviously she had also caught the look that wasn't meant for her.

You felt yourself beginning to break and instead of using words you tossed the jar at Malfoy and stormed out of the common room to the girls' dorm.

You heard Draco fumble with the jar and satisfyingly loud crash as you began to slip into the dorm and your bed.

You were in a thick bog that you wandered aimlessly in. You felt another presence and cried out: "Who's there?"

You heard nothing but saw, through the misty darkness, a green eerie light coming towards you.

"Who are you?" you asked the figure, as he emerged from the fog in his traditional black sheet, carrying his ever-glowing green lantern.

Suddenly you felt someone grab your from behind. You spun around and saw the pale-faced corpse of John.

"Why?" he questioned as you began to scream.

You awoke abruptly, sitting up and in a cold sweat.

Draco tossed and turned in bed, trying to sleep. It was no use, he realized. He sat up and buried his head in his hands. He wouldn't get much sleep tonight and he knew that.

Suddenly he heard Amanda scream. He knew it was she because of the time she'd discovered John's body.

He rolled his eyes but got up and headed out of the boys' dorm, noticing a few of the guys wake up hearing the mesmerizing scream bounce of as many walls possible.

You sat there covered in cold sweat and feeling nausea arise in your stomach. You remembered the coldness of John's dead body and began to shudder. You pulled your knees up around you and rested your head upon them as you began to sob.

Out of the corner of your eye you noticed some girls looking around the room and then, seeing you sitting, went back to sleep. They either thought they were dreaming the scream or didn't care that you had.

You felt a hand pat your back, and sitting up straight you wiped at your face and turned around. Draco was sitting on your bed. "What're you doing in here?" you asked, shocked.

"I couldn't bloody well sleep with you screaming everywhere," he replied, attempting to look disgusted.

"Were you… worried?" you asked. Trying to find a loop whole that would lead you two together.

"Do I look worried?" he asked.

No, he didn't.

"Well then what do you want?" you asked, shoving him off your bed and going back to sleep.

"I meant what I said last night," he replied, "I can't sleep without you. I don't want to sleep with a filthy…" here he lowered his voice, "muggle, like you, but I don't have a choice."

"No way," you replied, putting your back to him as you lay down, "I'm not going anywhere with you. Not anymore."

"Suit yourself," he replied, "but you better be inclined to share this bed." Here he tried to intrude on your bed.

"No way," you replied, "you're not-"

You both started shoving at one another until all the candles in the room lit themselves. You both looked at the dorm door to see Professor Snape standing there.


	15. Chapter 15

Draco ran after Amanda as class ended. Their potion was a total disaster. When Draco told Amanda not to put the leafy-things since the potion was only purple she ignored him and added them when he wasn't watching. This caused the potion to, quite literally, blow up in their faces. Luckily they weren't harmed because Draco had sliced up some sort of root improperly which Amanda had commented on. The fact that the root was not chopped up fine enough was also blamed on Amanda by Professor Snape. This made Amanda looked like a rather atrocious student in Snape's eyes although, frankly, his mind wasn't light on Draco either. The both of them had just slipped past a detention and instead Snape had decided to lecture the class on the variety of root chopping and variety of roots.

However now class was over and as Amanda continued to walk past Draco and down the hall.

Draco yelled after her, 'Yeah. That's it! Run to Finnigan!"

Amanda continued to walk down the hall but merely picked up the pace and turned the corner.

As Amanda escaped Draco's taunting words Crabbe, Goyle, Blaise and Pansy all emerged from the classroom. "Don't waste your breath, Draco," Pansy said, "I can't believe she's your cousin. You don't share any sort of resemblance. You have class and poise and she's just... a bitch. Almost muggle scum." Pansy said all this soothingly as though Draco were chasing after Amanda with apologies and sonnets but still Amanda had stormed off, nose up-turned.

Draco turned to face the crowd and tried to smile. She _was _muggle scum. "You're right," he begun as he slung an arm around Pansy and began walking down the hall with the whole group revolving around him. "I told my father I didn't want her here. I practically hate her. It's just, you know, we're cousins. I can't have her ruining my reputation with Finnigan. And let's face it Finnigan has always been out to get my – cousins. That bogus Potter's probably in on it too."

"Behind it," declared Blaise.

"Probably," grunted Draco.

"Well at least you've still got me to take care of Draco and to take care of you, of course. I would never ruin the Malfoy name," said Pansy.

Draco smirked at the fact that Pansy probably wouldn't do any good to his family name either. He sniggered to himself. Of course in Amanda's case... if she was going to mess around with Potter or even Finnigan he sure would have the option of revenge.

You turned a couple corners, dashing down halls and then stopped to breath. You sucked in air deeply looking around the halls for anyone you knew. Not wanting to look stupid standing there on your own and not wanting Draco to come up and poke fun at you some more. That's what he was doing, wasn't it? Just poking fun at you? Ridiculing you and for what? You didn't understand. Maybe you didn't want to. You double over and put your weight on your knees as you stared down at the floor. What was it that kept you and Draco apart? Other than the fact he was a jerk and you couldn't stand to be near him for more than five minutes. Okay, that was lie. You did wish you weren't fighting and all you-

"Amanda? Are you all right? You look like your going to be sick," came the words of a worried Seamus.

"I'm fine," you said, look up at him and standing up straight, "Potions just makes my head feel a little woozy." You spun your finger around for emphasis.

"Really? I thought it might've been Snape. He always makes me feel a little more than queasy."

You laughed, "I could understand that."

"Are you going to the Great Hall for lunch?" he asked after a moment.

"I dunno. Is that where I'm supposed to go?"

"Well, we can go wherever you want. I mean – you can go wherever you want," he replied.

"Oh," you said. You thought to yourself for a moment. What to do? "Lunch sounds good. I'm not hungry now but if I don't eat I know I'll just get hungry in my next class."

"Would you like me to walk you there?" Seamus asked extending his hand.

"I would love for you to walk me there," you replied as you saw Draco turn the corner with that Parkinson girl all over him. You took Seamus' hand and let him slip his arm around your shoulder only so you could move it down to your waist.

Draco only pulled Parkinson more into him but you just smiled and looked to Seamus who seemed to be cruising down the hall as though he had just won the Nobel Prize. "Seamus," you said between clenched teeth, "could you kiss me? I need to prove something to Mr Malfoy over there."

Seamus seemed to get message and turned to look at Draco who glared back at him. "I don't know about this, Amanda," he replied as he turned back to you.

"Please," you replied, "I'll owe you."

Here he smiled at you and shrugged, "Alright." And then he leaned in and kissed you. It was so different from Draco's way. There was no struggle for power there just a deep simplicity that shook your whole body as you let yourself fall into Seamus' kiss, who in turn seemed to be falling for you. You both began to forget where you were and what you why you were kissing one another in the first place as his hands slid down to your hips and your slide up his back a bit. The only thing that seemed to revive the both of you was the slight commotion you both heard in the halls.

At the sound of all the ooo-s you pulled away, laughing and avoiding his eyes. You weren't embarrassed per say but more so shocked that he was such a good kisser. It wasn't that Draco was a bad kisser but… you didn't need him anyway. Why were you thinking about him?

Seamus grabbed your hand and you peeked over his shoulder to see Draco scowl and look at Pansy and grab her with some strong force. He flung her around like a doll as his greedy mouth bent to meet hers. You felt like scowling now but didn't have the time as Seamus pulled you along with him down the hall that began again to vibrate with ooo-s.

"That was nice," Seamus said, looking down at you.

You laughed a bit. "You sound as though it was your first time kissing a girl," you said.

Seamus looked a little embarrassed, "Well... no."

"Oh mon Dieu! It was your first. Wasn't it?" you were shocked, "Wow."

Seamus looked embarrassed and a bit puzzled.

"I don't mean you're any less of a "man" or anything," you immediately said, "It's just... Why, Sir, you kiss by the book. You're a natural. I mean really – wow."

"Thanks?" he replied.

"You're welcome."

"Could we-? Could I-?" he started to say.

You waited.

"Never mind."

"No. What?" you asked.

"Do you think we could do that again sometime?" he asked.

You raised an eyebrow, "Sure. Like when?"

"Now?" he asked.

You laughed. "Well I guess – for a minute but-"

He kissed you again and totally swept you off your feet with his skills. You felt yourself float away in Seamus' arms. When it ended again only because you both knew you should hurry for lunch before it was over Seamus stopped you before you could look away and pretend nothing had ever happened.

"Amanda," he said.

You looked down a bit and glanced up, "Yes."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're beautiful?"

"Yes," you replied still only glancing up, "But I don't really understand what it is. How can you measure beauty?"

"I don't know how to measure it but when I'm with you I know what it is. I know I just met you yesterday but I just wanted you to know that you're beautiful. Look at me."

You looked up and smiled at him. "Well thank-you," you replied, "and I would love to snog you, Seamus, but I don't know if I want a relationship right now."

"I understand," he said nodding and not looking at all disappointed, "just keep in mind that you and I have a connection and we will be together before the summer is out."

You entered the Great Hall together. However you and Seamus were not wrapped around one another as you so often were with Malfoy, whom you saw was not at the Slytherin table or anywhere else in the Great Hall for that matter. You followed Seamus who lead you to the Gryffindor table which was the same as the Slytherin table except the people who were sitting around it were different. You saw Ron, Hermoine, Harry, Neville and a handful of other Gryffindors you'd never met before. You took a seat beside Neville and across from Hermoine. Seamus joined the table by sitting beside you.

"Hi, Amanda," greeted Hermoine, "How was your first class?"

You looked from Ron to Seamus who both looked at you in turn, "It was… the exact opposite of interesting."

"Yes," she said, "Well I'm sure you wouldn't find muggles at all interesting and actually I don't either. I mean to say because I am half one."

"Really?" you asked, rather interested to know someone else here could semi understand what was going on with you.

However Hermoine didn't take it quite like that. "Yes," she replied taking the question rather offensively.

You furrowed your eyebrows and sort of shrugged this answer off as you reached for some food. Ron was very helpful in the food department. He knew all the really good stuff from just the plain good stuff and you helped yourself to tons of food as the crowd went on talking about teachers and classes you knew nothing about until they turned their attention directly to you.

"So," Ron began as he finally pushed his plate away after finishing his fifth helping of lunch, "are you from the North America's then?"

"Uhm – yeah," you replied, taking an ice cream from a really nice looking cone holder, "I'm actually the most Northern part of North America which would be Canada."

"And how are you related to Malfoy?" Harry asked.

"We're cousins," you replied feeling a little awkward.

You saw Hermoine getting ready to ask a question and quickly decided to explain.

"You see," you said, "we're really second cousins. You see his dad's brother actually had kids really young and… this one is like thirty and he is my father, the one that's thirty."

"So how did your Dad end up in Canada?" asked Neville.

"A job opportunity came up when he was… in his twenties at a – a… communication booth thing," you said uncertainly, "like crystal balls and stuff."

Everyone gave you a very strange look.

"Do you mean that he works in an owlrey?" Ron asked.

"Yeah," you said and continued to watch everyone gawk at you for a moment and then they suddenly seemed to digest the information.

"Sounds kind of cool," Seamus remarked and then everyone began to agree.

"What's the Canadian school for magic like?" a girl with red hair asked and by the looks of her you assumed she was related to Ron.

"Well-" you began but were interrupted before you could finish your lie.

"I hate to… ruin the party," began Professor Snape from behind you, "but I suggest that you all get to your classes immediately after all we wouldn't want any of you slackers failing again now. Would we?"

You had never thought you would be happy to hear Professor Snape's cold voice until that moment.

You trotted alongside Hermoine as you both walked off to Divinity together. Whatever that was.

"Hermoine," you began, "what exactly is Divinity?"

"You mean Divination?" asked Hermoine.

"No. It says "Divinity" on my timetable," you said, holding it up to show Hermoine.

"Hmmm…" she said, "must be some sort of typo. Well, Divination is basically a class where you learn prediction using certain instruments such as the stars and plants and even certain herbs. You look within other objects to look within yourself to find an answer."

"Right."

"It'll seem more clear when you get through your first lesson. The Canadian school must be a lot different."

"Oh," you said, "you can trust me when I say it is."

There was a pause here where you walked through crowds and such and then Hermoine asked a question, "Are you really related to Draco? Because I'm sorry but frankly I can't believe it."

You looked at her for a moment and then sighed and decided you may as well confess, "No. His dad made that up so that I would be put into the same house for my stay. I think."

"So how do you know the Malfoy's then?" Hermoine asked.

"Well Draco and I are sort of, I think, dating. Maybe."

Hermoine thought for a moment and nodded, "I could see that. But why on earth are you dating him?"

"Well like I said I don't really know if we are – but he's really just this great, fun, hot guy and he really is nice in his own way. I mean he is mainly a vain jerk but he really has his moments."

Hermoine looked at you puzzled, "I don't think I quite understand why anyone would ever date or want to date that idiot but I sort of know what you're saying about him having his moments. I know someone who's like that."

"Really who? Anyone I know?"

Hermoine flushed, "Uhm – no. No, no, no."

You coughed, "liar".

The both of you giggled like little schoolgirls as you arrived at the class. Divination was a most interesting class and even though it was sometimes hard to understand you thought it was your favourite. Professor Trelawny was the most interesting teacher there. She always said things that were unexpected even if her class was the hardest it was the most fun. You thought she might secretly know you didn't belong there because every once in awhile she would point at you and smile when calling on someone else for an answer. In Divination today you looked at crystal ball readings and the alignment of planets. Hermoine seemed to know everything about everything. She claimed she knew all the stuff about aligning planets from last year in Astronomy. Finally class was over and having Hermoine volunteer to drop you off at Herbology you had sometime to ask her questions.

"So how could **b you /b **have possibly failed Divination?" you asked.

"Oh," she replied, "I didn't, but I want to get as much in as I can. I had to drag Ron to come back to school with me. With Harry it was easy, he'd much rather spend his time here than with the Dursleys."

"Who're the Dursleys?" you asked.

"The Dursleys are his Aunt, Uncle and Cousin. They're the most muggle family I've ever heard off. Even my family isn't that… regulatory."

You nodded. "The more I hear about Harry the less I like it. He doesn't to seem to have a very good life and he doesn't really have a good attitude toward any of it either, does he?"

"No, he hasn't had good life but I think he handles it quite well actually."

You wondered on this as you and Hermoine walked to Herbology. Apparently Hermoine had a freebie next so she didn't mind walking you at all. She assumed you had class with Neville and before she left you she said one thing.

"Watch out for upcoming holidays. Dumbledore loves to compress all the years' holidays into the summer and he warns us about two hours in advance. I heard another one is coming up soon. Maybe later today." Before you could question Hermoine any longer she shrugged and ran off.

You wondered a bit where she could be off to so fast as you dashed into the class yourself.

Neville was in Herbology and both paired up to deal with a seemingly poisonous plant. If it weren't for Neville you would've probably had to be carried off on a stretcher.

"You're really good at this," you commented, as he massaged the stem of the plan and rubbed one of its leaves to extract the poison from the top of rather ugly looking flower.

"Nah. I'm – alright, I guess," he said, blushing again.

You smiled at him. "I think it's amazing what you do in here."

"Cup," he said gesturing to the cup beside you with his dragon scale gloves.

You picked the cup up and handed to him and watched him gather every last drop of the precious concoction with the cup. He smiled when he was finished at the flower seemed to shrivel a moment and then turned a bright violet colour and bloomed into a bold blue flower that seemed to shine in the light that came in from the walls of the green house.

"Nicely done, Mr Longbottom and Ms McKnight," said Professor Sprout as she came around, "Everyone gather here. See how Mr Longbottom and Ms McKnight have correctly…"

Professor Sprout was kind lady who you thought would be very much like Mother Nature if there were one. Perhaps she was Mother Nature. She really seemed to like Neville and even though she obviously saw you knew nothing about plants and were following whatever Neville said she was nice enough to you as well. Frankly most teachers had liked you because of your maturity. Okay, so you didn't think you were mature but sometimes you could see yourself as leaning in that direction like when you were taking care of your sisters or at your job or staying after school to do a group project. Or was that just doing what you had to do.

After Herbology you all piled out to head to the Great Hall for dinner but Neville stopped you before you could rush off.

"I'm staying to work on something for extra-credit… I mean that's what all of this is but – Seamus wanted me to ask you something," he said, "Now what was it again?" He stood for a moment, thinking. "Uhm… Oh! He wanted me to ask you if you'd meet him near the girls' bathroom on the third floor."

"When?" you asked.

"Oh," he began, "Uhm – before breakfast. I think. Yeah."

You rolled your eyes and smiled, "Tell him, sure. And thanks for the message, Neville. Good luck with your extra-credit thing. Not that you need it, of course."

"Thanks," he replied.

You entered the great hall and sat at Gryffindor table with your new friends, not even bothering to look over at the Slytherin table. At least you would've if it weren't for the fact that as soon as you headed for the table you were directed to the Slytherin's by Professor Snape. You shuffled to a spot where no one was sitting and when you went to look around the only thing you saw was Draco with his arm slinked around Parkinson.

Finally his eyes caught yours. You immediately averted your attention from him to the food. You weren't going to give him the satisfaction of thinking he'd won. You didn't feel much like eating so you grabbed a drink. Then you began to think on tomorrow morning and Seamus.

Later in the Slytherin common room you pranced around in your borrowed pyjamas.

You stared at the empty fireplace. Then went to study a jar on the mantle filled with a clear almost blue substance. You took the jar and went to open it, captured in your own curiosity.

"Flobberworm mucus," said a voice from behind you.

You turned around, jar still in hand, to see Draco and his leech, Parkinson. He had his arms around her again as she gave you a bragging smile.

You gave a Draco a bit of "can't we stop this" look but looked away as you felt your lip begin to quiver with remorse.

"Jealous?" asked Parkinson, looking up at Draco as they both shared a smile. Obviously she had also caught the look that wasn't meant for her.

You felt yourself beginning to break and instead of using words you tossed the jar at Malfoy and stormed out of the common room to the girls' dorm.

You heard Draco fumble with the jar and satisfyingly loud crash as you began to slip into the dorm and your bed.

You were in a thick bog that you wandered aimlessly in. You felt another presence and cried out: "Who's there?"

You heard nothing but saw, through the misty darkness, a green eerie light coming towards you.

"Who are you?" you asked the figure, as he emerged from the fog in his traditional black sheet, carrying his ever-glowing green lantern.

Suddenly you felt someone grab your from behind. You spun around and saw the pale-faced corpse of John.

"Why?" he questioned as you began to scream.

You awoke abruptly, sitting up and in a cold sweat.

Draco tossed and turned in bed, trying to sleep. It was no use, he realized. He sat up and buried his head in his hands. He wouldn't get much sleep tonight and he knew that.

Suddenly he heard Amanda scream. He knew it was she because of the time she'd discovered John's body.

He rolled his eyes but got up and headed out of the boys' dorm, noticing a few of the guys wake up hearing the mesmerizing scream bounce of as many walls possible.

You sat there covered in cold sweat and feeling nausea arise in your stomach. You remembered the coldness of John's dead body and began to shudder. You pulled your knees up around you and rested your head upon them as you began to sob.

Out of the corner of your eye you noticed some girls looking around the room and then, seeing you sitting, went back to sleep. They either thought they were dreaming the scream or didn't care that you had.

You felt a hand pat your back, and sitting up straight you wiped at your face and turned around. Draco was sitting on your bed. "What're you doing in here?" you asked, shocked.

"I couldn't bloody well sleep with you screaming everywhere," he replied, attempting to look disgusted.

"Were you… worried?" you asked. Trying to find a loop whole that would lead you two together.

"Do I look worried?" he asked.

No, he didn't.

"Well then what do you want?" you asked, shoving him off your bed and going back to sleep.

"I meant what I said last night," he replied, "I can't sleep without you. I don't want to sleep with a filthy…" here he lowered his voice, "muggle, like you, but I don't have a choice."

"No way," you replied, putting your back to him as you lay down, "I'm not going anywhere with you. Not anymore."

"Suit yourself," he replied, "but you better be inclined to share this bed." Here he tried to intrude on your bed.

"No way," you replied, "you're not-"

You both started shoving at one another until all the candles in the room lit themselves. You both looked at the dorm door to see Professor Snape standing there.


	16. Chapter 16

Last night was utter disaster. Snape had come in and he had handed you and Draco both detentions. You didn't see why you had to get one though.

You'd tried to explain to Snape you hadn't done anything and that Draco had come creeping into your bed. You had been trying to kick him out but he didn't listen and so you were forced to except your punishment. First thing in the morning you had detention. You'd have to hurry, you thought, or you'd miss Seamus. So as you woke up: groggy and pleasantly alone you swung yourself out of bed and rubbed some sleep from your weary eyes. You actually hadn't slept too well last night with all the problems of today buzzing in your head. You let out an empty sigh and then walked over to your chest to get ready for the day. Today was a what? Friday? You threw on a pair of rather discerning clothes and then tossed some school robes over it. You slipped on your strappy, silver heels and pouted realizing these were not the type of shoes that you enjoyed climbing stairs with. Oh well. It was like having a full day workout, for your legs and arse, that is. You then grabbed your books, tossing your cover messily over your bed and straightening your pillow, you took one last look around the girls' dormitory and exited.

Loads of people were already up and moving which only made you groan more. You looked at the piece of parchment in your hand. Didn't these people every get tired of having to buy special paper for the printer, you wondered? Despite what kind of paper it was it still read the same thing as it had last night, which was you were to report to the Potion's classroom in the dungeons first thing this morning. You grumbled something about how this was very unfair and you wondered through and out the Common Room. You hadn't seen Draco or any of his goons in there and were pleased because frankly you didn't have the strength to talk to them right now.

You wandered down through corridors and past painting on your way to the Potion's room and noticed something different in the halls. They were all pleasantly dressed for the holidays. That is if you celebrated Christmas or Chanukah in July. You wondered what was up with all the holly and mistletoe as you rounded a corner and went down a couple steps to arrive in the dungeons. Not very jolly down here, you thought, as you stepped briskly into the classroom. However the class was forcefully dressed in bright twinkling holly and had a very sickly looking Christmas tree in the corner. The balls on the Christmas tree were all singing rather loudly and squeakily to a different pitch of Deck the Halls.

You gave the tree a horrified look and then saw Snape and Draco both at the front of the class. They seemed to be in deep conversation but when they noticed you stopped talking abruptly so that Snape could point to a table in front of him where loads of dirty cauldrons sat. Draco took a seat and began to scrub at them with a soiled rag that came from a larger pile of rags on the right centre of the table. You picked one up and began to polish scrub at the disgusting insides of the cauldron as Snape sat down at his desk and began to scrawl something down on a sheet of parchment. It looked like a letter from where you were sitting but when you went to sort of sit up so you could get a better view Snape's eyes snapped towards you and you immediately shrank back to cauldron duty.

"This is your entire fault," you whispered to Draco.

"Me?" Draco whispered angrily back.

"Yes, you. If you hadn't of tried to sneak into-"

"Silence," Snape commanded and the two of you shut up.

That was the only attempt at conversation either of you made for the next forty-five minutes of cauldron cleaning.

* * *

_Dashing through the halls_

_On a pair of broken heels._

_Running down the corridors_

_Straight away from Peeves._

_You're going down the stairs,_

_Almost crashing down._

_Don't you wish that you had just_

_Decided to stay home_

That's what a few of those bells from Christmas trees were singing as they flew around your head. There was a ghost behind you that had bewitched them to do this of course. He had told you that he went by the name of Peeves and to your bad luck had then tried to toss a vase at you. After attempting at this and missing because of your ducking he had then bewitched these miserable singing decorative balls to sing loudly into your ears whilst flying around your head. Your head pounded as you finally reached the girls' bathroom on the third floor that seemed to have a large puddle emanating from it. The balls continued to see the carol for you to your own embarrassment. Fortunately Seamus had been waiting for you and you were glad to still see him there.

"Sorry," you said, swatting a few of the Christmas balls to the floor and with glee hearing the shatter until they were all just a pile of broken shards on the ground. "I had detention and then my heels broke running down the halls and then this ghost-thing made those Christmas balls sing at me. This is just a long way of saying: my morning has not been productive."

Seamus almost blurt out laughing as he looked at the shoes you were holding it your hands. "Why didn't you just fix them?"

"Uh… what?" Did you look like a shoemaker?

Seamus took out of his wand aimed at the shoes and muttered, "Reparo." They promptly turned into a bunch of posies.

You gave him a questionable look and he scratched the back of his head for a moment. You then just laughed and shrugged, "Well thanks for the posies but I don't think I can walk in them." You continued to hold the posies and then smelled them. They smelled like posies and not feet, which you weren't sure, was a good thing or a bad thing. "So yeah. Anyways why did you want to see me?"

"Well there's going to be a Yule Ball this evening and I wanted to know if you'd go with me?"

"Wait," you said dismissing the question part of the question for a moment, "a Ball? Since when was this happening?"

"Since today but I found out from a reliable source yesterday that it would be happening tonight. This is one of those spurs of the moment holidays that Dumbledore throws over the summer. He figures failures should have fun too, I guess. What do you think?"

"About failures?" you asked, not really following.

"No. About going to the Ball with me? Yes? No?" he asked.

He seemed rather hopeful and it wasn't like you didn't want to go alone. No need to make a feminist statement. "Sure. I'd love to go with you," you sent Seamus a grin.

"Great," he beamed back down at you and felt somewhat intimidated since you were now four inches shorter than him without the heels. All these guys made you feel really small. "I'll pick you up outside the Slytherin painting at 6 then?"

You gave a nod and another grin and then heard a loud church bell ringing. This was signifying the beginning of class and you promptly said, "We'd better go. Don't want to be late for more inaccurate lectures." You wagged a finger and the both of you started of towards Muggle Studies. Unfortunately another hoard of balls began to chase after you continuing where the others had left off.

_Oh the bell just rang,_

_The bell just rang._

_How unfortunate,_

_You'd better scurry faster,_

_Or you'll be late for class. _

And let me tell you it took a lot of imprecise magic from Seamus to get them away because these ones would shatter and then go right back together again.

* * *

The rest of the day was rather uneventful as you went from class to class:

Muggle Studies was what it was yesterday. You sat with the two boys and the back of the class and you basically made fun of the Professor at the front. Every so often Seamus would say something to make you blush and Ron would roll his eyes at the two of you a bit and be quiet for awhile. He didn't really have a date for the Yule Ball so when Seamus and yourself went on a flirting spree it just made him feel uncomfortable that he didn't even have anyone to talk about flirting with.

Potions was even more miserable than yesterday. Draco and yourself didn't say a word to each other throughout the entire class, making your potion even more of a failure. Not to mention Parkinson kept giving you some witty grin from across the room. You suspected that Draco had asked her to go the Ball with him and, try as you may no to think about it, it sort of hurt a bit to see him going with someone else. Not that you were ever really going together or anything. Right?

Lunch was basically a gossip period. Everyone sat at the Gryffindor table and talked about the Yule Ball later and who was going with who and what they were wearing. This only struck you into panic for the next two periods. What would you wear? You didn't have a dress or anything! You immediately began to worry. You couldn't go casual could you? No. Everyone around you had been discussing long gowns made of silver thread and whatnot. The only thing you had that was remotely fancy was your silver-heels now turned to posies by your date. You began to rack your brain searching for an answer to your problem and found none feasible. This could not be good.

Divination was not the same as yesterday because all you could think about was what you weren't going to be wearing. You decided to confront Hermione with the problem in hopes that she might be able to solve it. She told you that there may be something she could do and to come see her right after Herbology. You agreed and then watched her toss things about in her mind. She seemed worried about something too. You asked her what it was but she told you it had nothing to do with the fact that she had no date. Which you took meant that she was felt stupid because she had no date. She went to go on about how no one had asked her but it was all right because neither Ron nor Harry had a date either. You told her she could still ask Ron or Harry but she laughed and dismissed that as a joke. Which it half was.

Herbology wasn't less educational at all. Neville wasn't distracted at all by the Ball. He made a few comments about how pleased he was to know you were going with Seamus and that was about it. The rest of the period was utter concentration on whatever it was the two of you were doing. It had something to do with the cutting of leaves and roots from this delicate plant. You worked on your plant, asking Neville for help every so often, but when you damaged one of the plant's roots and it oozed this yellow sticky substance then was promptly rushed off to the Hospital Wing by Professor Sprout you decided that giving up seem safer and even though you were told to work with Neville you just sort of admired his work and doodled a bit instead.

When dinner came around you headed to the Great Hall but not spotting Hermione at the Gryffindor table asked Neville if he would quickly walk you to the Gryffindor Common Room before sitting and eating. He gave you a quizzical look and you explained it was about the Ball and an outfit and as soon as he heard you were looking for a dress he appeared uninterested and said he'd take you, probably just to get you to shut-up about clothes and matching and whatnot.

* * *

Hermione lay out the folds of fabric and stared at all of them with admirable eyes. "There's so much to choose from. I could have… just about any dress I want," you stated, eyes glossy with greed.

Hermione let out a cheerful laugh. "Pretty much," she agreed, as she began to change into her dress.

You kept your eyes on the material, thinking intently on all the possibilities. You admired some black silk and then went on to look at an electric blue silk. Finally your hands ran over some sort of rough material that reminded you of a scrim only black. (A scrim, or "gauze" in European terms, is a stage term for a piece of transparent cloth used on stage. It can actually either appear white and solid or transparent, depending on the lighting you use.) You took the fabric up and pressed it against a shirt you were wearing underneath. You saw the red of your shirt shine through it. You grinned immediately, getting an idea.

"Hermione, I think I know what kind of dress I want."

* * *

The two of you gazed at the final products in the mirror. You loved the dress you and Hermione had made. Okay, just Hermione. But it _was _your idea. It was knee length or a little bit above your knees when hemmed, actually. Oops. Mainly it was made out of a metallic stretchy red cloth, which reminded you of thin metallic wrapping paper you'd once recieved a gift in for Christmas and then made (an attempt) at a ridiculous hat out of and insisted on wearing it for the whole day: you were eight at the time. The shiny stuff was covered with the guazy black stuff. It was tight until it reached your waist where it puffed out a little. You'd used or rather Hermione had used (upon YOUR request) black lace for the trim. The top of it was strapless and the dresses cut at the top consisted of two basic shapes a semi-circle, an inverted triangle, and another semi-circle.

It was very nice, except you were a little self conscious about your knees and you still didn't have any shoes to wear, you touched up your lips as you stared dismally at your two feet and pouted.

"What about shoes?" you asked.

Hermione looked and smiled at you, "Well I don't think anyone will be looking at your feet, Amanda. I'd be more worried of the Professors letting you in, in that dress."

You shrugged, "They have to let me in. Well, they would have to -- if I wasn't barefoot."

"What was it you said about your shoes? Seamus turned them into posies?" Hermione laughed at your sorrow a bit and then stopped and looked at you as you sulked, "Don't worry we'll get you shoes and then you'll have to run to the Slytherin painting. Seamus will probably be stopping to pick you up there in about an hour."

The two of you looked around the room. You weren't sure what you were looking for but Hermione seemed to be. Finally she put down two candles.

"Shoes," she said, gesturing to them.

"Uhm… Hermione, I don't know if you noticed, but those are-" you began but Hermione cut you off with her wand and magical mumbo jumbo and soon you were staring at a pair of shoes. "Shoes," you finished. "How did you do that?"

"Well I stumbled across an advanced Transfiguration book awhile back," she said glowering.

You gave Hermione the biggest hug you could manage and then slipped on the Victorian boots that had been just what you wanted actually. "Wow, they fit great too. I'll have to borrow that advanced Transfiguration-ma-who-ha thing you were talking about." You gave her a smug grin and she shook her head slightly and chuckled.

"You'd better get running, Amanda. Don't want to be late for Seamus," she sighed.

"No, I don't. I'll see you at the dance, I guess. I think you should stick with the whole going alone thing," you said encouragingly, "really the whole woman's rights thing suits you."

She gave an uncertain nod and you wondered if there was such a thing as witch's rights as you wandered out of the Gryffindor Common Room getting held up by a curious Harry and a gawking Ron.

"What're you doing in here?" asked Harry, who was wearing very fanciful school robes.

"I just came to get ready with Hermione," you replied, stopping for a moment.

Harry eyed you a bit coldly, "I see."

You stood there for a moment not knowing what to say to Harry and furrowing your eyebrows a bit. As you went to look up at Harry again you caught Ron's expression and you looked at him puzzled. He looked like a fish with his eyes bugged like that and his mouth open like that. You looked around you and then realised that Hermione had warned you about the dress but you thought guys would be used to this.

"Is it the dress or something?" you asked looking at Ron.

"What?" Ron said, coming out of a stupor, still looking stunned, "N-no, the dress is good, it's fine. I just…"

"It's a bit… revealing," Harry piped up.

You looked up keeping your head at their level and then slowly rolled your eyes to the side for a minute and let out a heavy breath. He thought you were a slut, was that it? You thought it was a nice dress and it would've probably been fine. In Canada.

You went to reply to Harry with a witty comment but then saw Seamus enter the Common Room.

"Amanda," he began, "I was just coming to get you." And then his eyes caught your dress and Ron's expression took over his face. "Nice dress," he complimented.

You laughed a bit and smiled, "Yeah. Do you think it's too "revealing"? Because Harry was just saying…"

"Oh Harry, doesn't know anything about girls and clothes and what-not," he protested, his eyes still shining a bit.

"And you do, Finnigan?" Harry asked.

Seamus' eyes snapped up to Harry's and you still felt Ron staring a bit. There was a prolonged silence that you ended up having to break.

"So – since you don't have to pick me up, what do you want to do?" you asked Seamus, smiling at him and putting your back to the two other boys.

"I don't know," Seamus replied, caught off-guard by your immediate question. "I guess we should just head off for the Great Hall anyways. There isn't much else to do."

"Great Hall, it is," you replied, taking Seamus' hand and guiding him out of the Common Room.

You both slid through the painting and then wandered off together heading to the Great Hall.  
"I really do like the dress," he said nodding again with approval and letting go of your hand to slide it around your shoulder.

"Thank-you," you replied, "And I like… whatever it is that you're wearing."

Seamus looked down at his own apparel and then up at you, "Dress robes. Have you never seen them before?"

"No. I was pinning it for some kind of variation of tuxedo or... some other kind of suit, actually," you answered honestly.

"Wow, Canada sounds a lot different from England."

"It is," you replied with truth, "For example if a girl were to wear something like this to a dance back at home she wouldn't get such looks of shock from the guys."

"The more I hear about Canada, the more I want to go there."

You smiled and laughed a bit, "Because the majority of girls would be considered skanks?"

"Pretty much," he replied, nodding.

You laughed a bit more and then rolled your eyes at him a bit. "Well I think if you and the boys here came back to Canada with me the girls may become even more skanky of the lot of you. Girls there really fall for the whole "British" thing."

"And the Irish? What've them?"

"What do you think?" you said raising your eyebrows and pulling him down a bit so you could give him a peck.

He grinned and said, "Liking Canada more and more."

You smiled and shook your head playfully as the two of you arrived at the Great Hall.

"It doesn't seem to be open," you said, stating the obvious.

"We'll have to wait awhile," he said, looking around him at the other people who were also beginning to swarm into the lobby in front of the Great Hall. He looked you over and kept his smile in place. You both looked at each over and then the Great Halls doors swung open.

You looked up at him and took a deep breath as his hand slid from your shoulder down to his side. He took your hand and you gave him a reassuring smile, "Here we go."

The two of you smoothly walked into the Great Hall It was beautiful inside. There was so much to see. False snow was falling from the ceiling and the touch of it was still a bit chilly as it touched just the top of your hair before vanishing. You looked at Seamus, who smiled at you. You heard some music playing it was soft, almost back-ground music until Seamus asked, "Do you want to dance?"

"To this music?" you asked. It was hardly what you'd call dancing music. Where was the techno, club-hopping music? Did Wizards even have clubs?

Seamus gave a confused look, "Is that a no then?"

"No. I mean, yes… I mean! No, it's not a no. (Ah! Double negative!) And yes, I would love to dance even if this music is somewhat irregular for me to be dancing to." Then you guided him onto the dance floor and sort of looked at him.

He looked at you.

"Uhm – how I _do /I _you dance to this?" you asked.

Seamus smiled and then snapped you up in what seemed to be a waltz, after a few moments you got used to the dance. "Amanda, stop leading," he lectured.

"I'm leading? Oh – uh – sorry." You attempted to stop and felt yourself become lazy and were now dragged around the dance floor.

A few moments later you found yourself complaining: "Can I lead I _now /I _? It would be so much more easier for me."

He laughed, "No way. I'll look like an idiot."

You laughed in return. "We're waltzing I think we both already look like idiots." You now noticed a few other people join the waltz and were a bit shocked to correct yourself, "Everyone here looks like idiots."

He smiled and looked around, "They do. Don't they? Would you like to stop looking like idiots and go get some punch then?"

"Please," you said, feeling yourself lead him off the dance floor in a sloppy waltz because you liked leading.

The two of you wandered to a table across the room that was pushed against the wall where rows of punch bowls and cakes and such were sitting. You looked back at the now massive crowd of dancers. How did they do that? How could they just waltz? How could the girls not be leading?

Seamus handed you a glass of punch and you looked around while sipping the glass to get an even better look at your surroundings. No sign of Draco yet, you noted, not that you cared. You couldn't care whether he came or not. But there was no sign of Pansy. Were they together? Were they really together and what were they doing?

"Who're you looking for?" Seamus asked.

You suddenly put on a smile and lied, "No one. I have the only person I'd be looking for here."

You saw Seamus blush a bit and then you gave him a peck on the lips, glad to see him blushing. It was very cute.

He sighed and put on a dopey grin, "Same here. Bloody Christ, I must have the most beautiful date here."

You smiled, doubting you were the most beautiful, "I don't know about that but I would say that I am one of the hottest here tonight." You gestured to your dress and did a bit of a spin. Whilst spinning you saw Hermione and Ron sitting at table together. They seemed to be quite off and you thought perhaps Seamus and yourself could cheer them up a bit. You took Seamus' hand again, still looking at the two of them and pointed with your free hand at their table. "Ron and Hermione don't seem to be having such a good time, let's go and cheer them up a bit. Shall we?"

Seamus shrugged and then said, "For a little while I guess."

You grinned a thank-you and then tugged him along with you to the table. The two of you sat, your hands still locked beneath the table.

"Hi, Hermione. Hey, Ron. Are you all right? You two look a little – well, depressed. Please, don't tell me you're the kind that doesn't enjoy social events. I have friends back home that're like that. They're just no fun at amazing dances like this."

"No," said Hermione, "It's an incredible dance." She still frowned though.

"Would be, if we actually had dates," Ron interjected.

"Well, where's Harry?" you asked, remembering the third member of their party.

"Dancing," answered Ron, "I should've known he'd end up with someone." Ron gestured toward the dance floor where you saw Harry being tossed from girl to girl and looking just as depressed. How could he not be enjoying himself either?

"Yeah…" you said, confused and still watching Harry.

"Why didn't you two just come with each other?" Seamus said, obviously hinting at something.

You looked at the two of them look at each other and blush and look away. They didn't answer though and you smiled, deciding it would probably be best to let them find each other themselves.

"I think our work here is done," you whispered to Seamus and then looked to the two of them, "Well, I hope you enjoy yourselves. Seamus and I are going to hit – float onto the dance floor again." You gave the two a bit of a wave and let Seamus guide you back to the dance floor.

"I see your evil scheme," you said, grinning and attempting to be lead.

"It's about time they got together really," said Seamus.

"How long has this been going on for?" you asked but did not receive an answer, due to the fact that Parkinson had saddled up beside you with her dancing partner.

"Well look who it is," Draco insulted, "the future's Mr and Mrs Finnigan."

"And I see someone is getting ready to work the street corner tonight," Pansy added.

You kept your mouth shut. Not wanting to start a fight.

"And you look like your should be in a dog pound," Seamus spoke up, defending you.

You smiled faintly but still kept your mouth shut not wanting to provoke anything and hoping to get in the lead so you could drag Seamus away from the fight that you knew might break to mutiny.

"Ooo big words for you especially considering your mother probably picked out your dress-robes for you," Draco said, chuckling and then shooting you a more than probing glance.

You pulled a bit closer to Seamus.

"I see your father didn't pick out yours. I don't see any Azkaban logos or an ID number," Seamus said hinting at what you gathered to be a prison uniform, smirking at Draco. Odd, you'd seen Draco's father less than two weeks ago and he seemed to lacking a stripped suit, ball and chain and -you know- prison, in general.

Pansy, you noticed looked up at Draco intently to see his reaction and there was something to see.

Draco stopped smiling with confidence. At first his face lost all expression but then it broke out in what could only be classified as pure, strong anger.

You looked from Draco to Seamus and noticed you had now, all four of you, stopped dancing. You tugged at Seamus. "C'mon, Seamus, let's go and dance somewhere else. There's no point in provoking him."

Seamus looked down at you and smiled but the smile didn't last long because instantaneously there was a fist in his face, hitting him square in the jaw. The two of them started beating each other as you jumped back in shock and were soon joined by Pansy. A few people were watching now as they hit each other.

You went to part them, struggling. You looked back at Pansy. Who stood and looked at the fight with a grin on her face. "Help me! Don't just stand there. Help!" You were thrown back by the ferocity of the fight and turned to look at Pansy. "Why didn't you help? We need to work together if we want to pull them apart."

The smile suddenly faded from her face and she stood obediently. "Alright, I'll help."

"Good," you said, turning back to the boys.

"Levicorpus," you heard Pansy command.

"Levi who – AH!" you screamed as you were hoisted upside-down by your ankles by and invisible force. You attempted to hold your dress down, or up in this case and screamed at the topsy-turvy Pansy, "Put me down! Put me down!"

You heard her cruel laughter as blood rushed to your head. You turned your head a bit to see Seamus holding his wand and saying something before hearing Draco shout "Mobiliseamus!"

You couldn't see anything after that as you were disrupted by a sudden cracking noise. It was surprisingly loud and followed by a hefty pain in your right arm. You screamed and realised that Pansy or someone had just broken your arm. It hurt immensely but the pain was short lived. As soon as you'd let go of your dress and felt it whooshing upward or…downward at your face your arm was mended and two seconds later you dropped to the floor with thud.

You expected to see a teacher but only saw a stunned Pansy looking to her left. You stood up and walked towards her. She took a few steps back, looking terrified and you got your right palm ready and then hit her right in the nose. She toppled backward to the ground and you sent her a victorious smile before remembering Seamus.

You turned around and saw him at the far end of the Great Hall, laying face down by the wall. You immediately flipped him onto his back, gently and then asked his bloodstained face: "Are you okay?" Despite the fact that you knew he was obviously not and in dire need of medical attention.

He spat out some blood so he could reply but you took that as an answer.

"I guess that would be a no."

He laughed hoarsely and you grimaced a bit.

"So where does it hurt?" you asked.

"Everywhere," he replied, sighing.

You tried to laugh but it didn't work very well and you so you looked away from his body, hurt by his appearance. You reluctantly put a finger on his nose, which looked safe at a glance. "Here?"

"Well – no," he replied.

"And here?" you asked, touching a spot on his forearm.

His arm tensed where you had gently rested a finger and you took both hands back, awkwardly. "Sorry," you managed to mutter, rubbing the back of your neck and looking around.

You spotted someone, a teacher (you presumed) heading toward you. She had little round spectacles on the bridge of her nose and her hair was pulled back into a very tight bun. The way her face was tightened she reminded you of a mouse or a cat of some sort. She approached you looking rather cross and you adverted your eyes to the floor guiltily.

"Mr Finnigan?" asked the professor, bending down to Seamus on her knees, "You are to report to the Hospital Wing, immediately." Seamus gave a weary nod and went to get up but grunted and froze in a somewhat upright position. She motioned and a nervous looking Neville came to help his friend up. He helped Seamus up, giving you a small smile and then went to hobble off with him.

"Bye, Amanda," Seamus said, stopping Neville a moment, "I had a really good time… Despite this. Will you need someone to walk you back to your Common Room?"

You went to shake your head and reply "no" but the teacher with you caught you off guard.

She was now standing up, behind you and replied for you, "That will not be necessary, Mr Finnigan. Now go along." She gestured to the door.

Neville proceeded to accompany Seamus out of the Great Hall and, you assumed, to the Hospital Wing wherever that was.

After you'd seen the two had exited the professor called on you, "Ms McKnight, I would presume?"

You nodded, still looking at the Great Hall's two doors a moment longer.

"You will be reporting for detention after dinner tomorrow night. Ready and eager to help our Groundskeeper, Hagrid, with finding a rare ingredient for Professor Snape."

You turned to the professor. It didn't seem fair. You had tried to keep the peace after all! "But I --"

"There will be no buts about it, Ms McKnight, and if I were you I would watch my behaviour. You have already received two detentions this summer. I do hope you aren't as much trouble at your regular school," she shook her head slightly and then left quick instructions, "Eight o'clock, outside at the gates to the Forbidden Forest." She handed you your detention slip. Again you saw it was written in black ink on parchment and you rolled your eyes and stuck out your tongue as she turned on her heel and walked away.

"I saw that, Ms McKnight," she replied as she walked briskly from the Great Hall and you noticed Draco was now at the doorway with Pansy arguing.

The Great Hall was empty except for yourself and you felt like an idiot, ruining the dance. You felt stupid in your dress and with your head stooped low, looking at the slip and beginning to tear it to shreds you walked to the Great Hall doorway, praying to God Draco would not see you. God of course had obviously not heard your plea as you heard Draco laughing coolly at you.

You turned your head in his direction, angry. "Can I help you?"

"No," he said, his eyes scanning over you, "You can run to your little leprechaun now."

You folded your arms across your chest, feeling rather exposed at the moment. "What is your problem lately?"

He scoffed, grimacing and not looking especially at you but at the door's arch. "You. You remember when you asked me if I wished I hadn't been with you the other night? I lied. I was just using you and I wish I had never even laid eyes on you."

You felt your tears coming but held them back, "Well you're not my dream boy either. I wish I were back home. Why can't you just take me home? Fly me there on your idiotic cleaning apparatus why don't you?"

Draco gritted his teeth, looking coldly at the floor you both were silent for a moment and then he muttered between clenched teeth: "We're under mistletoe, you know."

You scowled and went to head back to your Common Room.

"I'll walk you. You'll get lost."

He was right. And so you merely walked alongside him, being sure to keep your distance and looking at the floor the whole time. You didn't feel his eyes on you and assumed he was doing the same.

You knew you were close to the Common Room as you had climbed down the stairs to the level the Slytherin's dorms were on. You flitted your eyes up to look at a few pictures on the walls and then when you went to turn to Draco, you saw him looking at you. You stopped and so did he. You looked at him for a moment in complete silence and he did the same and then he took a step toward you and kissed you. You accepted the kiss simply kissing him back and then he pulled away a moment. (Here's where the fourth movies silly random potion closet comes in!) He turned around, looking for a door and reached for one that looked remotely skinnier and taller. He jiggled the knob a moment and you stood in stunned silence behind him. He pulled out his wand, muttered alohamora and the door unlocked. He swung it open and pulled you in after by your wrist, closing the door behind you. He snatched you up in a kiss again, pushing you against the door as you backed up a step. And when you felt his lips move down to your neck you bit your lip in reply, your hands at your side having an internal battle. He moved his lips away slightly to comment: "You look irresistible in that dress."

He moved his lips down to your collarbone, nibbling gently and reaching for the straps of your dress. You felt yourself snap inside, remembering Seamus and pushing Draco back with reason and force.

"Wh-what're you doing?" you asked, "I-I'm with Seamus, Draco. We were never together anyway. I can't – do this."

You heard no reply from the darkness and opened the door, leaking light in to the potion's closet. You left the door open and looked ahead of you to see the Slytherin painting. You said the password at it and watched, as it swung open. You crawled in through the hole in the wall, into the Common Room and walked briskly past Pansy to the girls' dorms. You changed into Draco's clothes and put the dress away and then hopped immediately into bed, trying to forget what had just happened and block it out of your mind completely. You closed your eyes and rolled onto your side, praying your dreams wouldn't be horrid ones.


	17. Chapter 17: Part I

You woke up very tired the next morning. You had been tossing and turning all night, unable to sleep much at all. At least you had no reason to fret over stupid dreams. You sighed as you sat up in bed and heard your stomach squirm. No one was up yet which suited you fine. This would make it easier to get out of here unburdened. You got ready for the day, tossing on your robes over your clothes before leaving the dorms and walking through the empty Common Room until you were far away from the Slytherin house entrance and somewhere in some kind of corridor.

In other words: you were lost. You continued to wander around looking for the staircase. But no one was awake, leaving you hopelessly lost. You stopped for a moment to think and heard someone walking around in a hall. You went after the sound almost running to it. You turned a corner. Bam, smash! You fell down and looked to see who had walked into you: Harry Potter. You groaned gathering yourself back up and looking down at him.

You cleared your throat, "Aren't you going to say sorry?"

"Why? You walked into me."

"I did not. I was turning the corner and then you walked right into me."

He scoffed and gathered himself up, his black hair ruffled in front of his face. He went to sweep the bangs back.

You cleared your throat again.

"I did not walk into you. Alright? What are you doing walking around here so early anyway?" he asked, straightening his robes and gathering his books.

You already held yours as you replied, "That is none of your business." You added, muttering: "And you _I did /I _walk into me."

He rolled his eyes, "Well if you're done whispering at me I'm going to go." And he turned to leave. He might be going to the Great Hall, you thought, and so you proceeded to follow him. You walked down two corridors, keeping your distance and then he spun around: "Are you following me?"

You scowled, "Following you? Of course not."

"Then where are you going?"

You thought a moment, "Grand Staircase, if you must know."

He turned his cold glare onto you, "The Grand Staircase is back the way you came straight down the opposite end of the corridor, two large doors at the end."

"I knew that," you said, simply, and then paused. You smirked, "I just wanted to annoy you." And then you turned to leave, hearing no reply.

You staggered into the hall slightly (after almost toppling off the Grand Staircase), embarrassed that you'd had to ask for help. You took a seat at the Gryffindor table and grinned at all your chums, noticing that Harry Potter was not in his seat. You wondered for a moment where he might have gone to.

Until your thoughts were interrupted by Neville, "A-Amanda?"

"Er – yeah."

"What are you doing?"

You looked to Neville and felt something sticky on your hand. You seemed to be ladling some warm syrup on to a hand which rested on some pancakes you did not recall placing there. You quickly put the ladle back and then proceed to snag the cloth atop a basket of biscuits, causing the people surrounding you each to grab one.

"Not paying attention, obviously," you muttered, more to yourself than Neville.

He gave an uncertain nod at this and there was a pause.

Carefully you went to reach for the ladle again. Success: no stickiness! You began to ladle some syrup safely onto your pancakes and with a grin slid the ladle back to where it came from. Then you proceeded to cut up your pancakes.

"Have you been to see Seamus yet?" Neville asked, eagerly.

"Nope," you replied, "I was planning to go up this afternoon." At least now you were.

"I'm sure he'll be out by this afternoon," he replied, nervously, "You didn't think his injuries were that serious, do you?" He was clearly worried.

You smiled and gently patted his back, "I'm sure he can handle his own. Or at least I'm sure someone in the Hospital Wing can help him handle his own."

Ron looked over, eyes relatively wide, "What are you "handling" of Neville's now?"

Neville looked rather petrified at the comment and flushed.

You merely smiled and returned to feasting on your pancakes.

The day had started well and seemed to continue in that direction. Muggle Studies was cancelled so you and the boys simply roamed the ground. It was quite fun, despite the fact that they did bring up Draco and started making fun of him and then scheming about his demise. But all was fine as you smacked them upside the head for it… then smacked yourself in the forehead. There was not need to defend him, after all, they were right, he was a good for nothing git.

Next was Potions. You were nervous upon entering but when you spotted Draco's empty seat were relieved, for a moment. You had taken your seat and begun on the lesson and then – Draco never showed up. He had seemingly skipped Potions. You were somewhat astonished and also a little sad. After all you were quite horrible at this potion making business. However you had a supply today which didn't seem to mind your faults at all. He was too busy scribbling down notes.

Lunch, in other words, came quickly. But instead of heading to the Great Hall you had decided you would attempt to find your way to the Hospital Wing and pay a trip to Seamus, who you had not seen all day. And that was what you were doing.  
You stumbled down a long corridor (one of many). As you walked down this corridor you noted in was dressed in paintings. As was the next. And the next. And… the next. And, actually, all the other halls of Hogwarts, you remembered and sighed. Then as you looked over each on the paintings, the members going on about their own business, you got a thought.  
The thought was immediately followed by you marching up to one of the paintings and asking quietly, "Erm – excuse me?"  
The painting seemed to sob in reply.  
You frowned, "Do you, perhaps – Could you, perhaps, point me in the Hospital Wings direction?"  
The painting looked up at you with a seeming look of anger, or rather the woman in the painting did. She had raven black hair, a rectangular face, a large nose, and seemed to be lacking in the eyebrow department. Come to think of it you weren't really sure if she was in fact a "she" but you didn't state this as you thought it would be a tad rude. The "lady" portrait continued, "How am I supposed to know? I wasn't invited." She gave a discontented howl.  
"Uhm – pardon?"  
"To the party. Venus is having one and everyone has been invited. Save me."  
You looked around to confirm her story, noting that the other portraits were actually quite desolate. You hadn't actually noticed it before and were a bit amazed that this story seemed true. "The party is at… the Hospital Wing?"  
"Don't even say those words." Her hand fluttered, shaking her handkerchief as she took it from her eyes for a moment. She cleared her throat and went to correct you, "It's I near /I you-know-where."  
"And you've never been?"  
"Oh no, I've been."  
Pause.  
You sneezed.  
The "lady" in the portrait muttered a, "Gazoontite."  
Becoming bold you decided to speak up, masking agitation, "Then… why can't you give me directions?"  
"I'm far too depressed."  
"Ah…" Pause. "Please?"  
"No."  
"Er – pretty please."  
She raised an eyebrow, opened her mouth, shut it, and walked off. You were about to call after her when you heard a "hummm… ho-hum" and decided (since you really had nothing else to do at this point) to wander after the sound.  
As you turned a corner you thought on how much time you'd have of lunch. You'd have to listen for the bell.  
Then the humming seemed to stop. You had followed it instinctively and come to halt before a statue, crowded with an assortment of things.  
"Tickle me."  
"Tickle…?" you repeated distantly and looked for the source of the mysterious command.  
You studied the statue a moment. One of the things in made the statue up stood out however as it was the one speaking.  
It was a small green pair with a little slit in it for a mouth. Using his mouth her repeated the command, "Tickle me."  
"If I tickle you," you inquired, "Would you give me directions?"  
"Tickle me," he demanded again.  
"Give me directions."  
"Tickle!"  
"Directions!"  
"Freedom!" came a voice from behind you.

You spun around to see an odd looking girl, with blonde hair and blue eyes. She smiled at you but said nothing.  
It was eerie.

You waited for her to say something but she didn't. You noticed there were bottle corks dangling from her ears and smiled they looked pretty cool, "Groovy earrings."

"Thanks," she replied, "Groovy shoes."

"Thanks. Amanda McKnight," and you extended a hand.

"Luna Lovegood," she replied, taking you hand and shaking it.

You liked her name. It would be a good stage name, you thought, and Luna actually seemed to (so far) be fitting the description "Drama kid" back home.

"You must be the exchange student," she added, "I can tell because of your accent."

You nodded, sheepishly.

"Well," Luna said getting ready to move on, "Was nice meeting you." And she gave you a bit of a salute.

Before she could march off, however, you'd stopped her.

"Wait. Uhm – do you think you could give this foreigner some directions? I need to get to the –uh- Hospital Wing."

"No, I can't give you directions. But I can take you there," she said with a grin, and looped her arm through yours guiding you to the Wing.

The two of you basically chatted about summer school, mainly Divination. Luna seemed pretty cool and you swore that you owed her a briefing on the Canadian schools at lunch as requested. Next lunch would be hers, you promised, and waved off your new friend as you entered through a pair of doors to the Hospital Wing.

The doors were shut of course and relatively heavy. You had to heave through them and as you huffed your way into the room a rather old looking lady walked over. She looked very curt and rather serious.

"You must be Miss McKnight," here she pointedly raised her eyebrows.

You frowned a fraction and gave a slow nod. She didn't sound too pleased.

The lady led you to Seamus' bed, mentioned something about a time limit then as coldly as you'd met, she left.

You stood there for a moment, looking at Seamus. He, in turn, blinked back at you. You attempted to think of something to say.

"Madame Pompfrey's not the warmest person today, hmmm?" he asked.

"No, she's not. Is she normally like that?" you asked.

"Well not normally, but apparently Professor Flitwick sent her someone and the guy never showed up for treatment on his … the mischarm – whatever it was – instead he went home. Ever since she's been as crabby as ever," he replied with a grin.

You nodded. Not knowing what to say and not understanding a good part of what Seamus had just been going on about. You shuffled a little closer to his bed.

"So…" you started, once more trying to think of something to say. You pushed your length of brown hair over your shoulder, still thinking. Your brown eyes roaming around the little area you had looking for a hint of idea.

"How're you feeling?" Seamus asked, obviously misconstrued for _your_ welfare. That, you decided, should've been what you started off with.

"Me? I'm –er- good. I got a detention," here you sat down on the side of his bed propped your elbows up on your knees, resting your head on your upturned palms, "from some really prude woman in glasses."

Here you mimicked the lady by creating your own glasses and saying it in a very strictly and in a very, very fake British accent, "Miss McKnight? Ah – you are the most horrible student that there ever was. Yes? You, making a mess about our party."

You shifted to an impersonation of yourself (innocent and helpless) "But it was self defence, Miss. I could've died. Didn't you see-?"

Shifted back to the impersonation of the teacher, "I did see and I don't care. So I'm going to give you this detention and hope that you do –someday soon- drop down dead because you are a horribly, terribly, horrid, awful little girl.

"At least, I think it went something like that. Well I'm pretty sure."

Seamus seemed to be stifling a laugh. "Sounds like you ran into McGonagall. I'm taking it you aren't taking transfiguration this summer."

"Uhm… no?" you replied with a confused smile, "We –er- don't have that back at my regular school anyways…

"But enough about me. I came here to see you. How're you feeling?"

"Better," Seamus replied, "Malfoy certainly got lucky. Next time though I'll show him some Irish sport."

You froze moment and then added gently, "But they're won't be a next time, right?"

"No," he looked you over, "I think I've already won for the most part."

You felt yourself blush slightly and you got a slight urge to elbow Seamus in the ribs, but you let it subside, after all he was seemingly injured (for the time being). "So when do you think you'll be blowing this Popsicle stand?"

He raised his brow at this phrase but after a moment replied, "Tonight sometime. Maybe I'll be able to escape by dinner."

"Well I certainly hope so. If I don't see you there I'll come and visit," you heard a loud bell ringing somewhere in the distance and thought it might just be a ringing in your ears but then you realised it was the bell and panicked. "Until then: rest, get better, all that jazz and –er- I'll see you later."

Seamus tried to grab you for a kiss but you were far too quick for him.

Quickly you dashed out of the Hospital Wing, yelling as you made your way out, "Ta, Ms Pom-" (err – what was her name) "Ms Pom – Pompom!"

Your heart was pounding as you ran into Hermione and finished panting when you let out a relieved sigh as you dashed into the class... early – all that running for nothing. You quickly briefed Hermione on the meeting with Seamus and how it all went down and asked her once more what the nurse's name there was. She told you, unfortunately, that it was Pomfrey; Ms. You hung your head low, making a remark that it was not a good one and recalling –faintly- that you had called her something along the lines of Pompom. You prayed simply that you never ran into her again.

As the two of you got settled in your seats waiting for Professor Trelawney to make her grand entrance you realised that Luna was in your class. With a grin you waved her over, insisting to Hermione that she sit with you. Hermione seemed to know Luna already and the two greeted each other.

The three of you had a discussion upon how you could recognise a vampire amongst parliament throughout the class. Later, you revelled over predictions you had to make upon yourself according to astrology signs and the moving of planets and such, then to drawing some sort of symbol-marked stones out of a bag (called something along the lines of runes). You had discovered that surprises lay ahead and changes. You marvelled over the predictions while Hermione claimed she had discovered she would be going through changes as well.

"Sounds like normal teenage. Really, the whole thing sound like hog's-wash to me," Hermione firmly commented.

Luna replied with, "Mine didn't say anything about changes though, and I'm a teenager. I think it said something about a great love. I wonder who it'll be... Maybe that Hufflepuff I met the other day – Oh, what was his name?"

"I wonder what these symbols mean about surprises," you stated. Then you turned to the symbol stones (runes) and asked eagerly: "Symbols, my dears, when you speak of surprises do you mean the good kind or bad kind?"

The stones seemed to stare at you in confusion and to your dismay did not attempt to reply.

This caused a frown to crease in your forehead and etch across your lips as the bell rang. The three of you gathered your papers and put the stones back in there bags, doing up the little ties round them.

Then you all chattered out the door, continuing your conversation on what you thought of the prediction before splitting up to separate classes. Hermione, you thought, was trotting off to astrology and you didn't know where Luna was going to but you did know that you had to head out to the greenhouses.

You hoped you could remember the way outside and then realised that was unnecessary as you collided with Neville. You both collapsed clumsily to the floor, delighted – or at least you were: delighted for running into him. However you hadn't meant to do it quite so literally.

"Sorry, sorry, you OK?" Neville was quick to apologise.

"Oh –uhm- yeah," you replied with a smile as the two of you slowly stood back up. You laughed. "Yeah. Glad I ran into you. But –er- I'm sorry I knocked you over, of course."

He gave a small nod and questioning look. Perhaps as to why your grin was so broad.

"I mean – I would never have got to Herbology myself," you quickly replied, you smile shrinking.

Neville paused a moment, nodded and then cheered up a bit and started off again. You trotted alongside him.

It was silent for a moment. You watched a strand of hair dangle in front of your eyes as the two of you made your way outside. It was quite foggy out today, you notice looking past the captivating strand for a moment. The sky was forecast you noticed glancing up. You didn't particularly like the look of it so you went back to staring at the strand of hair, eyeing Neville every now and then. He remained silently content all the way to your Greenhouse. You didn't want to disrupt the broad smile on his face so you just walked along quietly, staring at the piece of hair until you were in the Greenhouse and seated.

You quickly tucked the stray brown wisp of hair behind your ear, taking out your notes and quill, prepared to learn. You were interrupted from your daily schoolgirl routine to notice the room had suddenly become rather full and crowded. There a big bushy thing up at the front that took up nearly half the room. You wondered if you would be using it today in class.

You were drawn from your thoughts by Professor Sprout calling you. "Ms McKnight."

You cut your mind short and replied, "Yes, Professor."

"This is Hagrid."

You looked at the bushy thing. So that's what it was – a Hagrid... Hmm. And what was a Hagrid exactly? You nodded your head and faked a smile.

"He's here to collect you for your detention," she stated, in a shame-on-you tone.

"Oh!" you exclaimed. It was a person? You quickly hopped up and headed toward the strange bushy... person.

The class broke into an "Oh!"-you're-in-trouble uproar.

You flushed slightly in response.

You bustled up to Hagrid, who seemed to be male and even have a face framed in that black hair. He smiled at you and you attempted a smile back although you imagined you just looked rather frightened as you staggered out of the Greenhouse with the giant of a man. You heard Sprout calming the class down as you exited through the Greenhouse door.


	18. Chapter 17: Part II

"So everyone's clear then?" Hagrid asked.

You hesitated as he turned and then rolled your eyes and belted out, "Why am I going with Harry again?"

There was a large sigh from beside you and you were tempted to sigh in return but before you could Hagrid turned around and replied to your question. "For the fifth time, you're going wit' Harry 'cause I said so. 

"Bu--" you stuttered.

"It's not like ya' have much o' a choice. I've already paired Mr Malfoy and Ms Parkinson."

You felt cold once more as Draco and Pansy's eyes darted over you, stabbing you repeatedly with their glare. But it was getting a little old at this point. They'd done it every time you'd asked. You didn't know why. Would either of _them_ enjoy being stuck with Potter?

You nodded dully to Hagrid in response.

Once more Hagrid turned, beginning to stomp around the forest, ever marching onward. So this was detention. You were stuck with Harry stupid Potter and you would be yanking out – "What's the plant we're looking for?" 

You thought you heard Hagrid grumble something before he turned around and replied, "Wolfsbane." You caught the slight edge to his voice and did a little jump back, gently bumping up against Harry.

You caught yourself however, before causing any real damage to him or the forest ground. "Sorry," you muttered.

"What was that? Did I hear an apology?" he whispered, you were close and his breath was warm on your face. It made you feel sick.

You felt your face turn to stone and your eyes met his before you turned, sharply, away. Trudging along you began to walk after Hagrid. After a few minutes he stopped quiet abruptly, nearly causing more collisions than necessary. 

He turned and gestured for the pairs to wander around the area. "Don't wander too far, just keep to this area," he warned. Then he sat down on a nearby rock and pulled out some lunch from his pocket. From his pocket? You looked once more. Yupp, from his pocket. The magical world sure was absurdly convenient and encouraging of lazy habits.

You trudged onward, slowly, wasting time. You may as well. You were stuck here for three hours or maybe longer (you hadn't really been paying too much attention to the opening speech Hagrid made). You spotted some Wolfsbane, which sort of resembled Lavender, except you noticed it drooped a bit. Not in an unhealthy way but a way that said, "Yes, I used to be happy. I used to be Lavender. But then I got a detention and was turned into depressed Wolfsbane. Help me!" You decided it was slightly creepy.

You reluctantly walked toward the poor plant and quickly put it out of it's misery by killing it – or ripping it out of the ground. You placed it in your basket.

"You should try not to damage the root. You think one of Neville's partners would know how to uproot a medicinal plant," Harry stated, interrupting your very intriguing train of thought on plants, humans and reincarnation.

"Shall I put it in pot too, with some soil and fertilizer?" you sarcastically put forth.

"Fertilizer?" Harry asked, his face scrunching up in confusion.

You would've felt bad for slipping like that – except in Harry Potter's case. You didn't much care what he thought of you or about you or if he was befuddled by your mere mortal vocabulary. "I wouldn't expect you to know what that is." You got back up clearing some dirt from your hands and continued to search for more Wolfsbane.

"I know what it is," Potter replied in a bit of a huff. "But how do you?"

You pretended not hear him and sped up a little whilst your eyes scanned the ground for the familiar Lavender-like plant. You heard him beginning to pursue you. You were about to run when your heel sunk into the soft earth. You grumbled, mumbling a few curse words. He caught up with you as you carefully bent down to pull out the heel. Afraid it might break. You managed to slide it out only to find Harry there before you.

"That's how you should uproot a plant: carefully." He almost smiled.

You, on the other, hand swallowed loudly. This was it, "the jig was up". He knew your secret. You waited for him to reveal he knew your secret. You were a simple muggle. Period.

"I live with my aunt and uncle, as I'm sure Hermione will have already told you: since you're so friendly. I've fertilize the lawn each summer. How do you know about fertilizer? Being Draco's cousin – Sorry, distant cousin and all." 

You held your breath while he said the whole thing and began to feel your face turning blue. Then you opened your mouth, gasping for breath. "Muggle Studies," you wheezed. Pointing over Harry's shoulder you called, "Wolfsbane!" And dashed off to gather it up.

You pulled desperately at it, hoping he would not come after you this time. Hoping apparently never gets you anywhere though. You felt Harry's eyes on your back and then noticed as he bent down beside you. "That's Lavender."

You didn't say anything you just shrugged and continued to pull it out of the ground. "I doubt Hagrid will notice," you lied. 

You heard a sigh meet your ear and then heard Harry walk off. You yourself let out another sigh and decided that might be too many for one day. You finished picking up the lavender, sincerely hoping that Hagrid wouldn't notice because you were far too proud to put it back. 

☼

"Amanda?"

"What?" you replied at the sound of your name, your mind had begun to wander: Thinking of home. Sigh.

"We should be getting back. It's dark," Harry commented wandering over to you, his basket brimming with Wolfsbane, roots and all.

You looked down at your own basket. It was… sort of brimming. Well half way anyways and you could argue it was at least three quarters full. 

Harry paused in front of you, waiting for you to get up from the tree you were slumped down against. You had gotten tired and decided on a break a two hour break. 

Your eyes found their way to the skies and roamed it searching a moon. You found one or an outline of one, behind a cloud. It looked full and the light that found its way through the thick cloud cast an eerie look on Harry's face. He offered you his hand but you shooed it away, pulling your own self up. 

You noticed him glancing at your pitiful basket which only made you want to get as far away from him as quickly as possible. Besides you were tired. You wanted to get back to the dormitories and just sleep. 

"You'd think Hagrid would call us in," you commented.

"You would," Potter replied, looking around the darkness, "but I think we roamed a little too far to be in earshot."

A cool breeze swept by causing you to shudder and Harry to send you a glance.

"Cold?" he asked.

Scared, you wanted to admit. You weren't particularly afraid of the dark, just of finding your way back. You were never very good at Geography and only managed a 76 in your final year of studies and that was an applied course. "No," you replied and began to scan the area yourself.

You heard Harry fumbling with something. He seemed to be pulling something out of his pocket: a large piece of paper which it sounded as though he were unfolding.

"I think we came this way," Harry replied, pointing at one of the many surrounding spots of darkness and, with his free hand, shoving the something back under his robes.

As Harry began to move as did you. You kept close to him, only a few inches of space separating the two of you.

You'd taken about six steps when you heard a low growl come from behind you. You froze. Then you heard a scratching on the ground. Another growl and an ethereal hiss.

"Harry--" you whispered.

"I know." He spun around, quickly tucking you behind him and drawing his wand.

You felt your brain sending signals to your arms to do the same but they still remained frozen.

You could hear Harry breathing heavily and nothing else and then there was a loud scream and something tumbled at Harry out of the darkness, knocking you both off your feet. Someone was crying, the same thing that had knocked you over. Or no – they weren't crying, as you gasped for air under the two people you realized they were _laughing_! Not just a "they". It was none other than Pansy Parkinson. 

You shoved at Harry, attempting to get up and kick some serious ass, when you heard the familiar voice of a Draco Malfoy, "Oooo, Potty scared of the big bad wolf?" You heard his stupid laugh chime in with Parkinson's and wondered to yourself how could you have ever snogged such a stupid prat?

If you had ever thought you would need restraint from tearing to Parkinson to shreds you were wrong. Potter went to lunge at Draco as soon as the two of you got up. You caught him by the waist, almost being dragged along with him as he jumped at Draco.

"That's right hold on to your man, McKnight, and I'll hold on to mine," you heard (or something similar to that, it was hard to hear over the guttural sounds Harry was making) Pansy say, a cringe-inducing laugh following suit. 

Draco seemed to also say something but you couldn't hear any of it. Harry was going crazy. You heard him growling now, he sounded like a dog. Or he did sound like a dog

Wait, what? That didn't make any sense. Then you realized they were coming from behind you. You would have felt déjà vu if it weren't for the pair of claws sinking into your back that caused your mind to be preoccupied with feeling pain. Something snarled into your ear and then snapped its teeth at you.

Paralyzed with fear you managed to make a little whimpering sound. You attempted to turn but only felt the claws sink more into your flesh. You looked to the boys for help but both of them were too busy fighting with another to help. You didn't even attempt to look for Pansy.

For a moment it seemed as though the whole world had stopped and you were just stuck standing there with the claws sinking in slowly. You realized you were biting your lip, holding back that scream and you began to taste blood. Your eyes began to involuntarily water and you came crashing down to the ground as the wolf shifted his weight.

The clock began to tick again as you heard a scream come from someone above you. The wolves' claws were still stuck in your back, pinning you to the ground so you were unable to get up. You released your bloody lip and unclenched your jaw so you might scream out, "Draco!"

You heard people moving and saw feet moving away from you at a rapid pace. You began to scream incoherently for them to return. You felt the wolf shift and back up off you. You felt him grab your ankle. Senses began to falter. You could just smell the earth below you and feel the damp grass beneath your finger tips. This was it, you thought, I'm going to die. This is the way my story will end with a wolf, torn from shreds. It was funny, you thought, you'd never pegged yourself for a little red riding hood. No, sorry, it was the Grandmother who was eaten. In any case, you could use a lumberjack to come in with his axe about now. 

Another tug on your ankle drove you from your thoughts and back to reality. Reality, you realized, was a place you were about to leave however because you were feeling very faint. There was another tug, this time more sharp. You could smell the blood. The pain increased in your joint, you felt as though it were about to pull your foot right off. Your heart was pounding.

Indistinctly there was voice, you had no idea who it belonged to or what it was attempting to communicate but your pain was immediately relieved with it's presence. Then it started to fade and you felt the pain increase. You sobbed calling for it. At first there was no reply but then it came again and again the pain subsided. You felt your hands push yourself up – off the ground and your eyes rolled around in their sockets, attempting to find some sort of focus. Instead they fell on a body; it was not Draco (the savior of your choice) but Harry. 

His eyes were dark, hair revealing the scar emblazoned on his forehead, his body tensed and his right arm outstretched. A wand was clasped between his fingers, aiming past you. You dragged yourself toward him, your limp ankle catching and mingling with the dirt. Reaching out with your fingers, closing them around his ankle, you then pulled yourself close to Harry. 

Pain shuddered through your body. 

Harry leant to the side and pulled his ankle from your grasp, only to kneel beside you, bent over your ankle. 

You heard the wolf let out and whimper and scurry away.

Harry pointed his wand at your ankle and, after a pause, muttered something. "Are you alright?" you heard him ask.

You bit your lip, tasting blood.

"Don't-! You're… you're bleeding."

You released your lip and once more Harry brought his wand to your wound (this time the one on your lip). "Thank-you," you whispered, tears issuing from your eyes.

He nodded and attempted a smile.

Swiftly, there was a snarl from behind Harry. Your brow furrowed and then his. There was blur of gray fur in the background.

"WATCH OUT!" You reached put but it was too late, a giant wolf jumped out with hairy long limbs and fingers, a hunched back. It's snout poked at Harry's leg and parting, latched onto it. "DRACO!"

Harry lifted his wand and attempted to turn over. His glasses' lenses shone as they caught the moonlight. He aimed his wand at the oversized wolf and screamed something. The wolf swung a paw and snapped the wand in half. He dropped it, trying desperately to defend himself with his hands. His defense was hopeless and you heard his scream as teeth sunk into his flesh.

"Draco," you muttered as you closed your eyes. "I can't do this. Not alone. Draco…"

Harry let out a scream.

You opened your eyes and took small steps backward, sobbing. You walked into a tree and stumbled against it. No, not a tree, too warm: it was a body. 

Arms pulled you back up, steadying you.

"Amanda," it was a familiar voice, "we have to go. Come on," his voice was a few pitched higher, "Hurry!"

Harry let out an unearthly cry.

"I can't," you murmured, "Help me."

You walked toward Harry.

"I – can't do that." 

You turned toward Draco as he made his reply and turned to abandon you, "You MUST!" It came out as an ethereal hiss.

There was a flash of green light and as you closed your eyes, blinded, you saw the black clad figure once again. He floated toward you and then: "Lights out."

☼

It was very dark when you awoke. You blinked twice and realized your surroundings were that of the Hospital Wing's. The white bed and curtain were a dead giveaway. The moonlight leaked our over you, through the window above.

You lay a moment and then turned over onto your side, shutting your eyes and tried to get back to sleep, memories of wolves dancing through your mind.

"Amanda," someone whispered, a familiar Irish someone by the sound of it. 

Your eyes opened and you hopped out of bed. You pulled back the white curtain separating you and the voice. There you saw another white bed, occupied. Seamus seemed to be hiding under the covers and reached out and pulled them back, expecting to surprise him.

However it was you, who was surprised as, beneath the covers, lay not Seamus but Draco, wand firmly pressed to his jaw. His lips curled into a smile.

"You," you stated, almost in the form of a question. You turned, heading back to your bed.

"Amanda, wait," he pleaded, sitting up.

"Now I should wait?" you replied, turning around to face him, "I'm always to wait for you, is that it? You wouldn't wait a second for me, Draco. You wouldn't wait to – to save Harry's life. You wouldn't even wait to save mine. So why should I? I'm tired of this, of waiting. Guess what? Time's up and I'm leaving." You turned back again, closing the curtain behind you.

"They were werewolves, Amanda," Draco stated firmly, his voice holding.

You kept the curtain closed.

"You were a fool to stay. If it–" his voice squeaked, "you – I mean," his face stayed sure as he tried to figure a response, fitting words in his head.

You pulled the curtain back and just looked at him for a moment; studying his eyes, trying to penetrate his thoughts. His face was clean, no injuries there. Then as you went to close the curtain, thinking there was nothing more to say, a thought struck you. "If it was a werewolf, then Harry… he would be – one of them? I'm one of them."

Draco's eyes glanced upward, meeting yours and there you saw the fear resting in them. His brow lowered and he started to reply…


	19. Chapter 18

"No, you're not – one of them. It was just a Bogart."

You pulled the curtain close to your face, resting it against the side. You let out a sigh of relief. "What's a Bogart?"

Draco mumbled something about muggles and answered, "It's a – a creature that – it turns into what you fear the most…" He folded his arms across his chest.

You paused and then voiced your opinion, "But I'm not particularly afraid of werewolves. I mean, maybe now I am but before I wasn't. I guess Harry might've been… or maybe Pansy. You aren't afraid of werewolves, are you?"

Draco came out of deep thought, looking up at you. You noticed now, as the moonlight unveiled his face, beneath his eyes lay deep, dark circles. You paused to think on if he'd gotten any sleep tonight, or at all. You were about to ask about Draco's sleeping patterns when he spoke up, mistaking the silence that had just passed for something other than lingering thoughts.

"Yes. All right?" he admitted.

You retraced the conversation back to your question on werewolves.

"Ha," you laughed aloud, "So, that's why you wouldn't help Harry?"

"No, I wouldn't help "Harry" because I hate him. I wish that Bogart had ripped him to shreds, if I could only be so lucky." Draco turned round, letting his feet meet the cold tiled floor. He moved his hands and gripped the metal frame of the bed, beneath the mattress. You thought you noticed a wound there on his left arm but there was no moonlight there to prove your suspicions.

You resumed conversation, a little shocked at his last comment, "How could you say that? He's a human being, Draco!" 

"It isn't like he wouldn't do the same, and leave me there to rot too, probably."

"You don't know that. I don't understand–"

"I do know! And you don't understand anything!" He threw back.

There was a stirring from beyond the white curtain, perhaps the bed next to Draco's. Draco drew his wand from beneath his pillow, aimed it at the location from whence the sound had come, and muttered something.

In a hushed whisper you asked, "What did you do? Was that Harry?"

Draco made no reply, just staring at you.

You listened again and when you heard nothing, you rushed to the curtain.

Draco's hands grabbed your arms and roughly yanked you backwards. When his words came, they came angrily. "It was a silencing charm, you stupid muggle," he hissed into you ear, before releasing you.

You turned and looked at him ready to throw back some harsh words but his face told you he was sick of fighting. Or perhaps just too tired. Somehow you knew he would make no attempt to continue it, unless he needed to defend himself. 

So you decided to be the better woman (for Draco probably wouldn't look good in a dress anyways) and you gently pushed him back onto the bed. You ran a finger over the dark wound on his left arm. It felt oddly smooth, no sign of healing.

This alarmed Draco and he quickly swatted you away with his free one hand, "You 

shou–"

"Shut up, Draco" you requested, hastily interrupting him, "please."

Draco obeyed but he looked very skeptical and worried still.

You laid down next to him, draping his arm over you. You pulled the covers over you and closed you eyes.

Draco moved over, awkwardly, and you felt him press his lips to yours, trying to gain access to your mouth with his tongue. Your eyes opened and you pushed him off of you.

"I don't want to dream about werewolves is all," you explained. You felt Draco move a little closer and you took his hand and draped it over your waist. "Tell anyone about this and I'll kill you."

To your satisfaction you heard no responses and, resting your hand on Draco's, you closed your eyes and fell back asleep.

☼

It was morning when you awoke and you turned to your side, to let yourself fall onto Draco's chest. He wasn't there, your eyes still closed you moved a little more over to feel where he was and found the end of the bed, sliding off of it a little (gracefully though, of course). You opened your eyes and sat up: no, Draco. Not here, not there, not anywhere. You sighed. Then where was he? 

Madam Pomfrey, parted your curtain and gave what could be classified as a small smile but only by someone like Snape, "You're awake."

"Yes," you confirmed, unsure of how else to respond to a statement like that. 

"Where's…?" 

"Mr Potter, ran off to class," Madam Pomfrey replied, pouring something rather gross looking liquid out of a pitcher and into a cup that she placed on your side table. 

"No--" you started, staring at the liquid, frightened she might make you drink it. 

"Mr Malfoy is also in class." 

"Oh. Then I better get going to class as well," you said starting to get up. Your back felt awkwardly tight, as if there weren't enough skin there to cover it. To compensate, you leant backwards as you stood. 

"All right, you're free to go."

You continued you walk off, awkwardly. You pulled the curtain back, eager to get out of here.

"But before you do, I'll need you to drink this," Madam Pomfrey handed you the cup. "It's for your back."

You nodded, giving her a thankful smile (as much of one as you could muster). Then you raised the cup to your lips and shuddering the whole time, downed the thick liquid that reminded you of a hay and soap milkshake. Not that you'd ever have one but you had a good enough imagination to guess at what it would taste like, and this stuff wasn't pretty far off. Holding your stomach, you handed her back the empty cup and then, even faster, ran out of the Hospital Wing. 

"Goodbye, Ms McKnight," you heard her call after you.

"Goodbye…" not again, you kept up your pace and as you passed through the door decided on calling her, "You."

☼

You wondered what period it was as you wandered down rather empty corridors. You kept walking down the halls, wondering when you bumped into a rather startled and tired looking Snape. 

He pulled out his wand aiming it at you, eyes wide. 

"Pro-Professor?" you asked. 

He hid his wand once more beneath his robes and then looked around before returning to you. "What are you doing here, Ms McKnight?" 

"I was in the Hospital Wing," you explained, gesturing behind you, "We got attacked by a yoghurt –or something- at detention last night. Have you seen Draco? Or Harry? Or Anyone?" 

"No, I'd assume they'd be in the Great Hall about now." 

You let out a sigh of relief, "So I haven't missed anything then yet? Great. I wouldn't want to fall behind." Especially in a class as hard as Snape's. 

"I'm afraid you have. They're having lunch," he replied simply, looking around for something. He seemed to spot whatever it was from the way you had come and quickly excused himself. 

You stood there standing for a moment, trying to remember the way back to the Great Hall and then bravely attempted wandering over there. It would be nice to just sit down and eat, enjoying your friends company. It seemed like years ago since you had done just that. (Even though it had only been two days.) 

☼

You found your way there soon enough, only getting lost a couple times along the way. Luckily you had managed to stumble into helpful people, like Luna, who had redirected you. 

When you finally entered the Great Hall, you were completely relieved. You realized you would have to leave early to head upstairs and get ready for class, brush your hair, change your clothes, wash and all that but it didn't seem to matter as you took a familiar seat at the Gryffindor table or were about to. 

"Amanda! You're alright!" Hermione cried out, jumping up and running over to hug you before you could do anything to stop her or anything at all, for that matter. "Harry, told us what happened last night. It sounds horrible. I mean, I have been through things like that before but – for a guest, that's – wow. How do you feel?"

"Uhm, fine," you replied, and looked over at Harry, sheepishly eating some toast. "Of course, I wouldn't be, if it weren't for Harry. He saved my foot from sheer doom and thereby saved my life from sheer doom." You sent him a smile.

You finally sunk down in your seat as Hermione burst into the tale that Harry had told, once more. Harry seemed to be indifferent through the whole thing, making notes when things were exaggerated. Ron made you a plate as all this went on and handed it over to you. Once you were done eating it was apparently your turn to tell the tale. You told your version as accurately as possible, leaving out Draco and your pleas for him entirely. Instead you added in pleas for Harry. When the story had finished the chatter died down to just the regular stuff about classes:

"It's not that I'm bad at Muggle Studies, I'm just not interested," Ron was pleading, "You can't expect me to do well if I'm not interested."

"So what do you want to do after Hogwarts then?" Hermione asked.

"Wha'?" Ron questioned, "What does that have to do with Muggle Studies?"

"Well – it's obvious your father wants you to…"

Their chatter sort of died out as you peered over at the Slytherin table, your head looking over your shoulder. You scanned it for any sign of Draco but couldn't seem to find him. You spotted his lug-head "friends" and his leech of a girlfriend, Pansy, but not him. You tried looking elsewhere but still, you didn't see him. 

You were about to ask about him when someone tapped you on the shoulder. You expected it to be Snape, telling you to get back to your seat but when you turned your head the other way you spotted Seamus. 

He grinned at you apparently having already hearing the tale, "Heard what happened," he confirmed your suspicions, "Must've been horrifying." 

"It was," you replied, "Especially for my back." 

Seamus pressed a hand to where a claw had been, "And how is yer back now?" 

"Fine," you replied, with a grin. 

"I was wonderin'," Seamus asked, "We're all sneakin' ou' tonight to head over to Hogsmeade, a village we go to on school trips. I was wonderin' if you'd like to tag along."

"Who's "we"?" you inquired, not knowing what Hotslamade was but not caring as you listened intently to Seamus and his Irish accent.

"Harry, Ron, Dean, Neville an' I."

"Really? But then I'd be the only girl?"

He shrugged, "Perhaps but I'm sure we'd make it worth the missing beauty sleep."

You laughed, faintly, and then gave a nod, "Alright, I'll come. But right now I have to go and get ready for class."

"Alrigh'. Meet us by the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room at nine-thirty."

You nodded once more and then, with a farewell to everyone at the table got up and headed back to the Slytherin Common Room.

☼

You checked your face in the mirror, you looked tired you noticed. Irrevocably tired. Of course—you'd look tired since you were about fourteen. You figured it was part of puberty or something. You change and grow up and… get tired. At least you look tired. With a shrug you stepped down from the mirror. The make-up had done little to cover up the lines below your eyes but you tried to convince yourself that it had. 

You pulled out some lippy and added it carefully to your lips as you grabbed your bag and checked for your wand and then left the girls' dormitories, out into the common room and… you paused. Draco was sitting on one of the plush couches and staring at the ashes in the fire-place and the small green fire there that illuminated them. 

You thought for a minute you could do one of two things: try to sneak past him or just face him, talk to him … Or you could just ignore him. You opted for the first option and began to slowly and silently walk past him, keeping your eyes locked on the exit at all times. Slow, you reminded yourself, one step, two step, three step. You were halfway past and he continued to stare ahead of him blindly. Excellent! Excellent! Four step, five step, six step. Great. Great. Past him now. If you turn your head you can see the back of his… You can't believe this is working! 

Then just as you reach as you reach for the exit, he ruins it. "I can see you, you know. I'm not bloody stupid." 

You sigh. "I know." Your hand falls. 

He snickers. "I don't want to talk to your or anything. I was just—letting you know." 

You nod, even though you know he can't see you. After a moment of silence, you brace yourself and turn around: better now than later. "Where were you at lunch?" 

"That is none of your business," you notice the undeniable coldness and distance in your voice. 

"You can tell me, you know," you reply as warmly as possible, as you take a few steps toward the couch. 

"Did you ever think that maybe, just maybe, I don't want to spill my guts to a muggle?" 

He doesn't want to talk to a muggle, huh? Well, that's fine. You don't want to talk to him anyway. You were just trying to be polite, to be a friend. Maybe, he never was your friend. Maybe, it was never about friendship. "Fine," you reply from between your teeth. "I was just trying to help." 

You turn to go but pause as he makes one last comment, "About last night, when I tried to snog you. I didn't mean it, you know. I mean, it can't happen again. And it won't. It was a lapse in judgment." 

You open the passage way and slam it on your way out.

☼

You wander in late to Divination but Professor Trelawney dismisses your tardiness exclaiming, "The spirit is not always on time. Sometimes the body decides to follow its lead." You offer an awkward smile in reply as you aren't quite sure what she's talking about but are pleased to be excused. 

You sit with Hermione and Luna and the three of you discuss the class and life and school and love and whether or not Hogwarts is actually made of morphing creatures and everything in between. Its fun and you enjoy it but you can't seem to come out of that funk Draco put you in. 

"A lapse in judgment," he'd said. So that's what you were to him, a damn lapse in judgment. Sometimes you hated him. Most often you hated him. You vowed to never speak to or of him again. 

Herbology was a much more focused subject. You spent most of the time following Neville's lead and actually succeeded in clearing your head with the power of learning. Draco was evicted from your cranium as the interesting facts of Mallowsweets entered it. You had a very distinct feeling that everything would be fine in the future. That is until someone asked you to recount the story of yesterday night and you were incessantly coaxed into doing so. Then a whole bunch of feelings reentered your mind: painful ones, calming ones, nerve-wrecking ones. A lot of different kinds. So much for learning. 

Dinner seemed to pass incredibly slowly. The conversation seemed to go fast enough but everyone seemed to be moving in slow-motion. You asked for the time about a thousand times as you went from listening to the conversation and eating as you tapped your foot to glancing over at the Slytherin table every five minutes and again noticing that Draco was absent. Was he worried about his figure? What was it? He had to eat sometime. Every time these thoughts entered your head you tried to knock them back out but they always kept wandering back in. You couldn't help it, you were worried about him. It wasn't that you didn't hate him. It was just you'd been through so much together and—of course—you were just a nice, kind, caring individual, unlike Draco who was the exact opposite! 

"Amanda?"

"What!" you snapped, withdrawing from your thoughts.

A shocked look Ron stood before you. "Uh… dinner's over."

You looked around. The food and plates were gone from the tables and people were filing out of the Great Hall. "Oh, right. Thanks…"

"Okay. Well… we'll see you at nine, righ'? Seamus told us you were coming?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I am."

"Cool. We'll meet you at the entrance to our Common Room, then? Nine-thirty?"

"Yeah. I'll be there. Uhm—what should I wear? I mean… where are we going?" If you were dancing you should wear something fun but something you could move in. If you were going for a walk you'd want to wear something sensible-enough but still tight-fitting so that… so that you looked hot. If you were just going for a drink or something then it really didn't matter. Then again… if the walk was long…

"Whatever you want," Ron replied.

Oh, that's helpful, you thought. "Thanks," you replied with a false smile and watched as Ron left with a glance back at you. You grabbed your things and also headed out. "A lapse in judgment," he'd said. Right. So, something hot then.


End file.
